ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the policy-analytic method of evaluation by first reviewing several ways in which ethics and values are important for public policy. Some analysts believe that policy evaluation should concentrate on explanation and prediction, treating ethics and values as an afterthought. The term ethics refers to the reflective study of moral choice, whereas meta-ethics refers to the reflective study of ethics itself. The standards of conduct or norms of "customary morality" that guide the behavior of analysts are variable. Descriptive, normative, and meta-ethical theories provide a foundation for evaluation in policy analysis, where evaluation refers to the production of information about the value or worth of policy outcomes. Given the present lack of clarity about the meaning of evaluation in policy analysis, it is essential to distinguish among several different approaches to policy evaluation: pseudo-evaluation, formal evaluation, and decision-theoretic evaluation.
