Evaluation has been described as a political act. Programs and policies are generated from a political process, and the decision to evaluate and how to use the evaluation are manifestations of the political dynamic. This exploratory study was conducted with practicing evaluators to understand what they view as political situations in the evaluation process and how they responded to these situations. Findings suggest that, in relation to the potential evaluation phases in which each respondent has been involved, evaluations are susceptible to politics when initially attempting to identify stakeholders and when it’s time to report the evaluation findings. Evaluators have also developed multiple strategies for dealing with these situations, including finding allies for the evaluation and working to explain the evaluation process and its implications. We hope that this study will help to inform novice and expert evaluators about the various political situations they may encounter in their practice.

评估被描述为一种政治行为。计划和政策产生于政治过程，评估的决定和如何使用评估是政治动态的体现。这项探索性研究是与执业评估人员一起进行的，目的是了解他们在评估过程中将什么视为政治情况以及他们如何应对这些情况。调查结果表明，就每个受访者所参与的潜在评估阶段而言，在最初尝试确定利益相关者以及何时报告评估结果时，评估很容易受到政治因素的影响。评估人员还制定了多种策略来处理这些情况，包括为评估寻找盟友并努力解释评估过程及其影响。