While legislative oversight offices, like many evaluation and policy analysis units, face substantial challenges in promoting use of their work by policymakers, they often have not taken steps to overcome these challenges by adopting the strategies suggested by the evaluation literature. Although the offices seek utilization, they have not fully…

Two examples from the law enforcement field are presented in support of Ginsberg's (TM 508 964) view that social dysfunctionality follows from the attempt to distribute scarce resources in a manner that appears politically legitimate. (BW)

The nine articles of this theme issue provide overviews of legislative program evaluation and demonstrate the tensions caused by the conflict between utility and rigor in such evaluations. Legislative evaluation is concerned with evaluation utilization because legislators commission evaluations they expect to use. (SLD)

Premature application of quantitative indicators formerly used for individual assessment and research to bureaucratic decision making can produce side effects that are dysfunctional in nature. In order to illustrate this phenomenon, the author reviews a general literature and utilizes examples form mental health care. (Author/BW)