ABSTRACT
In those days, the utilization issue-the last problem in the Eight Problems Approach to Public Policy Evaluation-was very simplistically addressed. This is achieved by taking the goals of others-mostly prestated policy and program targets-as organizers and criteria of assessment, and by focusing on the most efficient means to reach the given goals. To meet the methodological requirements of scientific causal analysis, public decision making must be converted into a two-step procedure: first, provisional tryouts organized as two-group randomized experiments to allow for scrupulous evaluation; second, utilization of the evaluation results to inaugurate the best means to achieve the stated ends. Then it gives a clear assignment to researchers to uncover efficient means to reach the goals. In the political and administrative context, utilization is mostly supposed to occur among collective actors. Governments, opposition parties, ministries, agencies, agency sections, or bureaus are the potential recipients.
