Free For All—Guest Editorial: Social Change and the “Evaluative Function” in Government

In searches for rational policy alternatives concerning circumscribed sectors of governmental activity it is sometimes difficult to reach satisfactory conclusions without expanding the “universe of discourse.” And, the broader the sector and/or the higher the level of government, the more likely it is that useful results will not be obtained without viewing at least some of the aspects of the problem of interest from a national or more general point of view. Thus, during the writer's involvement with apparently well delimited problems in the management of federal research and development programs, efforts to develop rationales for decisions about program priorities invariably resulted in need to dispose first of questions falling outside the terms of reference for the issues at hand. The concepts of an “evaluative function” and, specifically, of an “evaluative branch” of government, arose in the course of attempts to overcome this difficulty. And, in exploring some of their implications beyond the confines of science and technology, it became apparent that applications promised improvement in governmental and private sector capabilities for dealing, at least theoretically, with a number of socio-economic problems now concerning the several levels of government in the United States.