Contenu du sommaire : L'évaluation des politiques publiques, entre nécessités gestionnaires et exigences démocratiques

The slow development of public policy impact assessment in France: an actor-based approach – Drawing on the conclusions of two recent studies commissioned by France Stratégie, this paper poses a critical analysis of the institutional and academic developments of public policy impact assessments in France. It demonstrates that rigorous statistical and econometric methods only make up a small (albeit growing) proportion of policy evaluations conducted in the country. Moreover, such production is concentrated in only a few specialized research centres. The institutional actors of policy evaluation (ministries, Parliament, court of auditors, etc.) have adopted an approach of policy evaluation that does not put the emphasis on identification of causality between a policy and its effects. They therefore rarely use these scientific approaches, preferring to resort to indicator monitoring or qualitative methods. In that context, the national statistics agency (Insee) and the ministries' statistics services represent a distinctive feature of impact assessment practices in France, in that they are halfway between administration and scientific research.

The role of supreme audit institutions in transforming evaluation practices: the example of Belgium – Based on the case of the Belgian Court of audit, this contribution examines the dynamics of enriching and diversifying evaluation practices used by within the entities in charge of controlling public spending, the Supreme Audit Institutions. These developments pose new institutional and organizational challenges for these entities such as the growing attention paid to the impact of evaluations, the erosion of traditional frameworks for public action and the coexistence of multiple professional logics.

The assessment of European public policies in the legislative and supervisory functions of the European Parliament – In a general context of a weak institutionalisation of evaluation in parliaments, the development of evaluation in the European institutions is characterised by a comprehensive framework including legal provisions, practical guidelines and quality control arrangements. The Parliament actively rely on it for implementing its legislative and supervision functions. However, some improvements appear necessary for a better inclusion of evaluation in the European policy making process.

The French regions and the evaluation of public policies: between differentiation and convergence – The evaluation of public policies is a major political and social issue in constant evolution. The French regions pioneered the implementation of evaluation but the place and the role they dedicate to this function strongly changed in recent years. On the basis of this observation, this article aims to analyze the variables of change that led to this new configuration. More broadly, this article draws up a panorama of the institutionalization, of the sustainability and of the weakness of policy evaluation within regional governments.

How French local governments implement evaluation – Three observations emerge from a recent online survey both quantitative (89 communities of more than 40,000 inhabitants) and qualitative (11 monographs) carried out on behalf of the CNFPT: trajectory of evaluation practices is uncertain; the evaluation objectives are more technical than political, with elected officials having difficulties finding their place and users bursting into the process; the utility is multifaceted, the very pragmatic strategies implemented ultimately aiming more at accompaniment than judgment. Thirty years after its gradual introduction, are we on the verge of a new stage for evaluation in local governments?

What does activist analysis bring to the evaluation of public policies? – This paper explores the similarities between public policy evaluation and certain analyses carried out by activist organisations. It examines different advocacy work relying, as evaluations do, on evidence-based data collection in order to judge the effectiveness, coherence and relevance of certain public policies. Although these advocacy activities are not always named or referred to as public policy evaluation, two case studies illustrate and document how these activist evaluation processes mobilise evaluative information for advocacy purposes. In what way could this advocacy work, which aims to alert public opinion through a would-be evaluative approach, be more likely to generate controversy and public debate?

The shared evaluation of vocational training put to the test – This paper examines the process of institutionalization of the evaluation of vocational training policy that has taken place over the last decade. In France the management of the vocational training policy, as well as its evaluation, is shared between employees unions' and workers unions'. The article shows firstly how evaluation has become a political issue. It then explores the work of shaping evaluation through the prism of social relations and institutional arrangements resulting from a reform introduced in 2009. Finally, the impact of “evaluation work” on trade union actors is presented. Through the examination of learning dynamics and obstacles related to practice of evaluation, this paper highlights the motives of the creation of a new collective actor of evaluation in the field of negotiated public action of vocational training.

Evaluation of complex housing related policies – The policies of “management of condominiums in difficulty” and of “struggle against substandard housing” (which partly overlap) are characterized by strong interactions between diverse interventions of multiple independent public actors. In addition, certain potentially decisive interventions are often almost non-existent, in particular because they are the responsibility of actors whose priorities are in other areas. Two evaluation cases (the national evaluation of operations targeting condominiums in difficulty and a regional evaluation of the struggle against substandard housing) illustrate possible strategies for evaluating complex policies and for mobilizing decisive but little involved actors.

The steering the French State's major investments put to the test – The practice of ex post evaluation combined with those of ex ante and in itinere are essential tools for steering public investments. The challenge is both to stimulate citizen debate on a well-argued basis and to allocate state resources efficiently. With the 2012 law on the prior evaluation of public investments, the Programme d'Investissement d'Avenir, which systematizes ex post evaluation, and the Grand Plan d'Investissement, which is based on in itinere evaluation, the State has equipped itself with steering tools in recent years. However, there is still some room for improvements because there are still misunderstandings about the supposed constraints of evaluation and its real objectives.

Structuring a cross-sectoral assessment area: feedback on health impact assessments –Within the last decade, the use of health impact assessment (HIA) has been growing at a blistering pace. The comprehensive approach to health provides it a cross-cutting positioning, combining evidence and expertise of use, health and thematic policies. Thereby, it stands out from other kinds of assessment, both methodologically and strategically. In addition to the challenges incurred by these specificities for assessors, the feedback from five HIA carried out testifies of an underuse of this approach, both in its operational potential and in its mobilization beyond urban policies.

A privatisation of the blue state ? Public and private engineering in the territorial governance of coastal risks – Since the beginning of 2010, the assertion of the public authorities (State and local authorities) in the field of coastal risk management has been substantial. However, the unequal distribution of expertise and the relations between public and private engineering seem to have been insufficiently analysed. While in the case of Charente-Maritime studied here, the local government gained competence in coastal risk management thanks to its expertise, most of the expertise needed to implement these policies is held by private engineering firms, which leads us to formulate the hypothesis of a privatisation of the ‘blue state'.