ABSTRACT
Evaluation activities in Sweden have been molded in a political setting steeped in optimistic views with respect to the capacity of the state and public bodies to tackle various problems. The new triennial budget process involves decentralization to the agencies. The internal perspective seems most frequently used for an agency’s financial and administrative functions, whereas the external perspective was most often used where the questions addressed the agency’s operational functions. The National Board for Consumer Policies referred to having carried out evaluations of different kinds of counseling activities in order to spread certain methods of counseling to other local authorities. The National Audit Bureau’s study in 1992 considers it doubtful whether any of the individual evaluations studied in greater detail were concerned with the theoretical validity of various central government endeavors. The Swedish Customs and Excise Department combats the illegal supply of narcotics in order to control the consumption of narcotics.
