Legislative Program Evaluation: Defining a Legislative Service and a Profession
本文回顾了纽约州立法支出审查委员会成立近15年来，美国至少34个州立法机构开展项目评估的实践，并探讨了立法评估作为一项立法服务和一种职业的本质问题。
Almost 15 years have elapsed since New York's Legislative Committee on Expenditure Review was established as the first state agency to conduct legislative evaluations. Since then, at least 34 state legislatures have either expanded the roles of existing agencies or created new agencies to evaluate program effectiveness and efficiency. The use of evaluation in legislative oversight has developed from an innovation to a practice. Although the structures and perspectives of the evaluation agencies are as varied as the legislatures that created them, common issues have emerged. Most attention has been given to process-related topics, such as analytical techniques and project management. However, broader, more intrinsic issues have influenced and, sometimes, have impeded efforts by evaluators to pursue similar concerns. The purpose of this article is to initiate a discussion of these fundamental issues. The focus is the nature of legislative program evaluation as a legislative service and as a profession.