The politics of performance measurement: ‘Evaluation use as mediator for politics’

Abstract

Performance measurement is intended to improve public decision making and organizational performance. But performance measures are by no means always rational tools for problem solving; rather, they are also political instruments. The central question addressed in this article is how performance measurement affects public policy. The aim is to conceptualize the political consequences of performance measurement, and of special concern is how performance systems influence how political decisions are made, the kind of political decisions that are conceivable, and how they are implemented. The literature on the utilization of evaluation and performance measurement is applied to analyse how performance measurement systems affect the political process of goal-setting and implementation. The article concludes that performance measurement may have intended and unintended effects and that it seems to have a retroactive impact on the political decision-making process, as the focus on performance goals entails a kind of reductionism (complex problems are simplified), sequential decision-making processes (with a division in separate policy issues), and short-sighted decisions (based on the need to achieve operational goals). Hence, the politics of performance measurement requires further study.