UCL - Public Policy Assessment Methods

[SPRI2220]

[30h] 5 credits

This course is taught in the 1st semester.

Teacher(s): David Aubin

Language: French

Level: Second

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

At the end of the course, the student will be able of:
- situating the evaluation of the public policies compared to other piloting tools of the public action;
- distinguishing the principal theoretical approaches and methods the scientific evaluation;
- articulating the stages of a typical procedure of evaluation;
- analysing in a critical way the contents of an evaluation report;
identifying the power issues related to the institutionalisation of the evaluation.

Main themes

The course is structured around four topics successively approached:
- the place of the evaluation in the analysis of the public policies and the principal concepts;
- the various approaches of the evaluation (experimental and alternatives);
- the evaluative process (to put a question into words, design, methods and use of the results); and
- the institutionalisation of the evaluation.

Content and teaching methods

The appraisal aims at appreciating the beneficial or harmful, expected or unforeseen, direct or side effects, of a public action and at informing the political decision makers about them, the Civil Servant and the Citizens. It represents certainly an instrument of control, but also a decision-making assistance, a management tool and a catalyst for the process initiation of a collective training within the civil service.

Why and how to evaluate scientifically a public policy? To who are directed the results of an evaluation and by which strategy can one as well as possible develop them politically? Is it necessary to institutionalise the evalua-tion in Belgium?

The course answers this range of questions by illustrating the theoretical remarks by many case studies realized in Belgium and abroad.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Each student comments, according to the analytical grid presented during the lecture, the report of an evaluation carried out recently in Belgium. This critical analysis will be summarized in a text of 15 pages and will be discussed of an oral presentation during the class.
Selection of readings and compulsory textbook: Weiss, Carol H. (1998). Evaluation. Methods for studying programs and policies. 2e éd. Upper Saddle River : Prentice Hall, 372 pp.

Course also opened to economists, lawyers, jurist, etc, interested by the evaluation of the public policies (to be discussed with the person in charge for the programs).