The literature on policy design provides insightful resources to improve policy evaluation. We compare how this literature addresses causation, evaluation, instrumentation, and intervention, based on different methodologies. Then, we explain how the realist approach can contribute to theory-based evaluation with multi-methods. We go through the process leading from the adoption of policy aims to the production of a policy outcome by a causal mechanism linking agenda setting to policy formulation, cross-sectorial coordination, political interplays, and this policy’s outcome. This hypothesis is then tested against a typology of policy instruments classified by the State resources. These instruments are hereby treated as expected empirical observations that provide an empirical basis to assess the theoretical process following a Bayesian logic. We eventually present a five-step protocol aimed at making realist policy evaluation easier, which includes process theorization and operationalization, empirical tests design, case selection and justification, congruence analysis, and deep within-case study.

中文翻译：

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政策设计对现实评估的贡献

有关政策设计的文献为改进政策评估提供了有见地的资源。我们根据不同的方法比较了这些文献如何处理因果关系、评估、工具和干预。然后，我们解释了现实主义方法如何通过多种方法为基于理论的评估做出贡献。我们经历了从通过政策目标到通过将议程设置与政策制定、跨部门协调、政治相互作用和该政策的结果联系起来的因果机制产生政策结果的过程。然后根据按国家资源分类的政策工具类型对这一假设进行检验。这些工具在此被视为预期的经验观察，为评估遵循贝叶斯逻辑的理论过程提供了经验基础。