Complexity Theory and Evaluation in Public Management

Philip Haynes

75 citations0/0 files storedPublic Management Review

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Evaluation and Performance Assessment Public Policy and Administration Research Complex Systems and Decision Making

Abstract

Complexity theory offers a systems based evaluative approach that places importance on holistic evaluation. Systems are seen as relatively unstable, but with some time periods that are stable. The theory provides some important metaphors for evaluating policy systems. The focus on whole systems, rates of change, evolving interactions and attractor states can be argued to be a radical methodology. This article explores an evaluative method where quantitative time series methods can aid the qualitative understanding of complex systems. Rates of change are proposed as key measures. A research example is given that describes the evolution of the policy of privatization and market managerialism of social care services in England. When compared to other models of public policy evaluation like punctuated equilibrium theory, complexity places more emphasis on the overall instability of the policy environment.

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References

1988The Constitution of Society.2014Fourth Generation Evaluation 1988Fourth-Generation Evaluation 1994Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy 1989The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies 2013A Realist Theory of Science 2019Theories of the Policy Process 1990The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies.

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2019The legacy of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation and the political ecology of urban trees and air pollution in the United States 2013What is evolutionary theory and how does it inform policy studies?2009Evidence-based policy analysis in South Africa : critical assessment of the emerging government-wide monitoring and evaluation system 2009The Contribution of Complexity Theory to Understanding and Explaining Policy Processes:A Study of Tertiary Education Policy Processesin New Zealand 2019Making sense of complexity in governance: the case of local public management in the City of Stockholm

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