Evaluation as a democratic process: promoting inclusion, dialogue, and deliberation: new directions for evaluation
New Directions for Evaluation, Number 85
J–B PE Single Issue (Program) Evaluation Series

Inclusive approaches to evaluation emphasizing participation and collaboration can enhance the efficiency of data collection, improve
learning, and strengthen commitment to act on results and also reflect the highest aspirations and ideals of a democratic society. The contributors to this volume use case studies to discover the lessons learned so far from successful and unsuccessful attempts to democratize evaluation. They offer ten questions to guide evaluation planning from a deliberative, democratic viewpoint, and look at a failed attempt at inclusive evaluation to analyze how deliberative intentions can be distorted. Focusing on participation, they discuss how best to use different types of dialogue to make evaluation more participatory, examine an evaluation program in a psychiatric institution to explore the challenge of employing participatory, democratic approaches in an anti democratic environment, and more.

Deliberative Democratic Evaluation (E. House & K. Howe).

Challenges in Practicing Deliberative Democratic Evaluation (J. Greene).

Dialogue and Reflection in a Collaborative Evaluation: Stakeholder and Evaluator Voices (R. Torres, et al.).

Democratizing Evaluation: Meanings and Methods from Practice (K. Ryan & T. Johnson).

Surfacing the Realpolitik: Democratic Evaluation in an Antidemocratic Climate (C. MacNeil).

Distangling Dialogue: Issues from Practices (K. Ryan & L. DeStefano).

Commentary on Deliberative Democratic Evaluation (S. Hood).

Deliberation, Evaluation, and Democracy (S. Mathison).

Benefits and Limitations of Deliberation (G. Henry).

A Modest Commitment to the Promotion of Democracy (R. Stake).