Handbook of Public Policy Evaluation

Handbooks of Research on Public Policy series

Edited by Frédéric Varone, Professor of Public Policy, Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Geneva, Switzerland; and an elected member of the Geneva Court of Auditors, Steve Jacob, Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science, Laval University, Canada and Pirmin Bundi, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Evaluation, Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

This comprehensive Handbook examines public policy evaluation in democracies. Focusing on the political dimension of the evaluation process, it argues that policy evaluation can be an emancipatory tool, reducing social inequalities and exclusion, and offers novel suggestions on how evaluations can be used to improve democratic policymaking.

‘The twenty-six papers comprising this volume highlight the challenges facing international policy evaluation in an era of misinformation, fake news, and conspiracy theories. The authors present an important reconceptualization of values and beliefs core to the evaluation function. You, the reader, are rewarded with innovative ideas and perspectives. This book is neither boring nor routine. The topical conceptualization is profound. The effort to read this book is well rewarded.’
– Ray C. Rist, World Bank, US

‘This book offers a panoramic and topical vista of the theoretical and practical dimensions of evaluation. Handbook of Public Policy Evaluation is more than a “handbook”; it is a reservoir of scholarship providing insights that range from technical and methodological issues on evaluation and evaluative thinking, to thoughtful explorations of evaluation’s relationship to our most fundamental democratic values and institutions.’
– Pearl Eliadis, McGill University, Canada

‘In this Handbook, Varone, Jacob and Bundi do not simply propose a relevant overview of Policy Evaluation. Rather, they go beyond current academic controversies by viewing policy evaluation as a fundamental political activity. Specifically, they propose an original and stimulating perspective presented in 26 fascinating chapters which cover all the facets of this topic.’
– Philippe Zittoun, University of Lyon, France