Leenstra Melle
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Eval Program Plann. 2018 Jun;68:218-224. doi: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2017.09.008. Epub 2017 Sep 23.
Development policy and implementation are a human endeavor. Too often, however, the human factor is relegated to an input or an externality in a quasi-technical process for transforming public funds into measurable results. Within the Weberian rational-legal order, policies and bureaucracies are impersonal and objective. Policy objectives tend to get depersonalized and the human stories get filtered out of impact evaluations. This article, on the basis of case descriptions, argues that following the human stories in development policy and implementation can offer surprising insights into why at times policies may work or not work. The article explores how the idiosyncrasies of individuals' agency impact on achievement of policy outcomes and what the unintended effects are. It describes how the human factor can give rise to beneficial unplannable, unforeseeable, and thus unintended policy outcomes. This article argues that, instead of negating this, policy makers ought to embrace the human factor of development cooperation.
发展政策与实施是一项人类活动。然而，在将公共资金转化为可衡量成果的准技术过程中，人为因素常常沦为一种投入或外部因素。在韦伯式的理性-法律秩序中，政策与官僚机构是客观且非人格化的。政策目标往往变得非人格化，而人的故事在影响评估中被过滤掉。本文基于案例描述认为，追踪发展政策与实施中的人的故事，能够为政策有时奏效或不奏效的原因提供惊人的见解。本文探讨个人能动性的特质如何影响政策成果的实现以及会产生哪些意外后果。它描述了人为因素如何导致有益的、不可规划的、不可预见的，因而也是意外的政策结果。本文认为，政策制定者不应否定这一点，而应接受发展合作中的人为因素。
