Critiques the chapters in this theme issue and concludes that the challenges to the pragmatic use of deliberative democratic evaluation are great. Current practice and theory do not go far enough to unmask the potential of evaluation for supporting democratic practices and creating democratic communities. (Author/SLD)

Identifies five themes that illustrate different aspects of the process of diffusing democratic deliberation into more widespread use: (1) appreciation; (2) addition; (3) apprehension; (4) application; and (5) adaptation. These themes give guidance concerning evaluation practice and the role of evaluation in society. (Author/SLD)

Describes a partnership of youth and adults in Ontario, Canada in the generative process of participatory evaluation as youth and adults jointly produced a conference as a participatory evaluation and worked as democratic equals toward a common goal. (SLD)

Highlights the important contributions of responsive evaluation's orientation to local issues and qualitative methods, but rejects responsive evaluation's relativity in favor of deliberation as a vehicle for adjudicating among competing evaluative claims. The great strength of responsive evaluation is that it helped break the intellectual…

Presents a framework for judging evaluations on the basis of their potential for democratic deliberation that includes the interrelated requirements of inclusion, dialogue, and deliberation. Operationalizes these requirements in 10 questions to guide evaluation and meta-evaluation from a democratic viewpoint. (SLD)

Reflects on an evaluation that aspired to be inclusive but generally failed to provide a backdrop for a discussion of inclusive evaluation. Identifies issues of absence of significant stakeholders, making of values by method, and the limited authority of the evaluation. Shows how easily deliberative intentions are distorted. (SLD)

Analyzes the complexities surrounding the concept of dialogue in evaluation through a critical examination of current theory and practices. Uses a descriptive typology based on genre, process, goal, evaluator identity, orientation, and epistemology to analyze two vignettes of dialogue in evaluation. (Author/SLD)

Challenges the assumption that evaluation should aim for fostering deliberative democracy. A modest effort by an evaluator to contribute to deliberative democracy is defensible, but vigorous political advocacy violates social expectation. (Author/SLD)

Uses the results of an instrumental case study to identify issues connected to evaluation participation and its representation and the role of the internal evaluator in democratic, deliberative evaluation. Identified direct participation and participation by representation, sanctioned or unsanctioned representation, and extrinsic and intrinsic…

Deliberative democratic evaluation and other evaluation approaches that require the linkage of evaluation to social and institutional structures require the application of democratic principles in evaluation and policy decisions that reflect these ideas. Outlines challenges in ensuring that members of diverse groups are represented in evaluations.…

Describes the participatory evaluation methods developed so that children participating in children's clubs in Nepal could use them in periodic reviews of their own functioning as creators of democratic organizations. (SLD)

Uses the evaluation of a family literacy program as the basis for an analysis of the benefits of collaborative evaluation. Identifies enhanced learning, efficient data collection and problem planning, deepened professional and personal relationships, and strengthened convictions as results of the collaboration. (SLD)