ABSTRACT
There is acrimonious disagreement on the methodological foundation and practical orientation of evaluation research. The classical way of approaching the evaluation problem is goal-attainment evaluation. Since by definitional fiat perverse effects occur and null effects do not occur in the targeted areas, the goal—attainment model with all its attention directed at what happens in these particular fields has no problem with handling them. But this also means that the model cannot discover and ascertain side-effects because they fall outside of the targeted sectors. Side-effects can be anticipated and considered in calculations preceding decisions to adopt policies. There are other criticisms of productivity as a measure of the virtue of public policies. Proponents of productivity as a criterion against which to evaluate public policies, programs, and services cannot escape the fact that productivity as a yardstick of output is not an ideal measuring rod for assessing the worth and merit of public sector activities.
