Definition of Public Policy Evaluation

Once public policy has been operationalized through the formal adoption of laws, rules, or regulations, and the bureaucracy has taken action to implement the policy, some form of evaluation needs to be accomplished to determine if the policy has achieved the desired outcome or impact. Public policy represents the expenditure of limited public resources and or restrictions on certain types of individual or organizational behavior. Consequently, the public has a right to expect that their government officials are accountable for the validity, efficiency, and effectiveness of those policies. Policy evaluation is therefore an absolutely critical stage in the policy process whereby ìwe can determine whether a policyís effects are intended or unintended and whether the results are positive or negative for the target population and society as a whole (Theodoulou and Kofinis, 2004, p. 191).î In essence, policy evaluation is the process used to determine what the consequences of public policy are and what has and has not been achieved.

At first glance, policy evaluation appears to be a straightforward concept however a closer inspection of the process reveals that policy evaluation can be equally as political and divisive as any other stage of the policy process. Policy evaluation provides additional opportunities for the myriad political interest groups and policy actors to attempt to influence the life of a specific policy. Favorable evaluations of the impact of a given policy will tend to perpetuate the implementation and life-cycle while unfavorable evaluations may give rise to change or possibly policy termination. Depending on the proclivity of any interest group or policy actor, the perception of how well a policy or program is performing or being implemented can have far-reaching impact.

The retrospective analysis of any public policy or government action is bounded by a number of ìreal-world constraints, such as time, budget, ethical considerations, and policy restrictions (Theodoulou and Kofinis, 2004, p. 193),î as well as political ideologies, values, experiences, measurement instruments, goal clarity, and institutional biases. The key to understanding and interpreting the results of any policy evaluation is that some degree of bias is inherent in the process. However, this shortcoming should not prevent efforts to produce fair and unbiased policy evaluation products, at least as much as possible. The objective of policy evaluation is to discover policy flaws and to attempt to correct them given all of the limitations incumbent in the overarching policy process. ìIn its simplest form, evaluating a public program involves cataloging the goals of the program, measuring the degree to which the goals have been achieved, and, perhaps, suggesting changes that might bring the performance of the organization more in line with the stated purposes of the program (Peters, 2007, p. 163).î