ABSTRACT
If evaluation is taken as being an attempt to explain the outcomes of legislation or a policy, and to measure its effectiveness and efficiency against preset objectives, it must be admitted that evaluation of this kind is uncommon in Switzerland. Tentative experiments with policy evaluation have been tried by the federal administration, but currently operated administrative controls reflect a preoccupation with rationalization, practicability, and the efficacy of administrative activities more than a concern with the effects of central government measures whose implementation is often in the hands of different departments and authorities. The Federal Council, or the appropriate departments, have the power to monitor implementation by requesting activity reports from the implementing authority. The discontent, initially confined to a few lone voices crying in the wilderness, swelled with the economic crisis into a broader debate just as the federal, cantonal, and communal executives were acquiring wider tasks in economic, social, transport, and environmental policy.
