Policy typology and performance measurement: Results from the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART)

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2010

Publication Title

Public Performance and Management Review

Publisher

M.E. Sharpe

Volume

33

Issue

4

First page number:

555

Last page number:

570

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between policy typology and Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) scores. Using the typology originally developed by Theodore Lowi, we analyze whether programs implementing certain types of policies systematically received lower PART scores and thus were at an inherent disadvantage in the PART assessment. When programs are categorized using the Lowi typology, our results indicate that programs that implemented redistributive policies had, on average, lower PART scores than programs that implemented constituent, distributive, or regulatory policies. As a result, our analysis reveals a potential weakness in the PART assessment process and suggests that future performance assessments may need to better recognize the evaluative challenges associated with measuring performance in redistributive programs.

Keywords

PART; Performance measurement; Policy sciences; Policy sciences – Evaluation; Policy typology

Disciplines

Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or use interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the article. Publisher copyright policy allows author to archive post-print (author’s final manuscript). When post-print is available or publisher policy changes, the article will be deposited

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