ABSTRACT
This chapter considers that three questions encapsulate the main aspects of the complex relationship of evaluation and culture. The first is about organizational or administrative culture, with an implicit universalistic reference to what is a "good" culture of evaluation, just as some contend that there is a "good" culture of management. In the second, political culture is involved; one can recall American scholars endeavoring in the sixties to compare political cultures and look for the ones they deemed "civic" as against others not seen as such. The third question deals with ethnic culture, with a burgeoning literature on multiculturalism, where Canadian references feature with exceptional salience. Although these three types of cultures- organizational, political, and ethnic-are all important, the contention is that when it comes to evaluation, public policies and governments are involved in such a manner that political culture has a dominant position in providing explanations for diversity across countries.
