ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses three major types of biases that stem from the social context in which policy events are inevitably embedded and evaluated: biases of time, space, and culture. It deals with another group of assessment biases, that is, those that originate in the political context in which policy evaluation inevitably takes place. In assessing policy outcomes, where one stands often depends upon when one looks, and with what kind of temporal perspective in mind. A prime source of analytical biases therefore involves the varieties of possible time horizons and the registration of the various effects policies have over time. The objectives of policies may vary in terms of their temporal scope and temporal quality. Temporal complexities in policy evaluation are matched by spatial ones. The key problem is one of delineating the geographical or social system boundaries in determining and assessing the outcomes of public policies.
