ABSTRACT
The collapse of the assumption of growth presents significant discontinuities for both policy and its evaluation. This chapter explores these discontinuities to identify their challenges for evaluation in industrial democracies. It characterizes the twentieth century shifts in both the role of the state from establishing civil society to direct service provision and in the delivery regime from classic public administration to a mixed economy of public management. Policy instruments were limited to bureaucracy and professional variants. While all the attention is being paid to economic pressures, other forces are gaining strength. The more individualistic basis of social interaction is reflected in political forces. The influences of at least some of the economic, social, and political forces can be attributed to technological developments. The United States was implicated in intelligence failings, and the federal and state governments failed to deal effectively with Hurricane Katrina. The chapter illustrates the stormy present of public policy dynamic forces and challenges.
