ABSTRACT
Evaluation of public policy is somewhat less well established than evaluation of programs. This chapter focuses on the nature of policy making as well as issues in evaluation strategy and methodology. There seem to be three broad policy evaluation approaches which are not, of course, discrete. The first approach examines the effectiveness of policy, whether the policy is working and if not the reasons for policy failure. The second approach examines the distributional outcomes and effects of policy, and the third examines value for money. Most evaluations start from the assumption that benefits and costs are recognisable entities. In practice, however, it may be very difficult to draw the line between costs and benefits. B. W. Hogwood and L. A. Gunn argue that policy evaluation is important even though we live in a world of uncertainty where there is an imperfect or contested understanding of many issues.
