Governance, Democracy and Evaluation

This special issue of Evaluation is devoted to the Sixth EES Conference, held in Berlin in October 2004. The main theme of the Conference was ‘Governance, Democracy and Evaluation’: undoubtedly ambitious, since it spelled out nothing less than the aspiration of evaluation to contribute to a better and more demo-cratic governance. The views expressed in the numerous panels and round tables at the conference were varied, and it would not be possible to synthesize them here. The articles in this issue were selected because they provoked lively debate and further thought. This introduction takes that discussion further. Making the Process of Governing More Democratic The conference theme could be dealt with in two different ways, according to the meaning one attributed to the term ‘governance’, when contrasted with ‘govern-ment’. ‘Governance ’ in the traditional sense is about ‘the process of governing’, rather than the ‘institution of government’.1 In this case, evaluation might aim at enhancing democracy through specific evaluation approaches that reinforce