Assessing Governmental Performance: An Analytical Framework

(Hardback)

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This study aims to provide an analytic framework, a theory of knowledge that identifies the kinds of structures and processes required for directing human action and the criteria for evaluating them. It builds on Meehan's earlier works and is intended for political and social scientists and graduate students. The book opens with a description of the author's theory of "knowledgement", then identifies how to fulfill empirical and normative requirements. Applying the critical apparatus to governmental actions, it examines the outlook for the future and the role in the process of the university and past performance. Meehan calls for an agreed epistemological base grounded in experience for critiquing governmental policy and behaviour and improving it.

Reviews

"On the normative side, Meehan is not only very explicit, but is reassuringly on the side of the human race. . . . On the epistemological side, the study is equally praiseworthy. . . . This is an intelligent and wide-ranging essay, more reasonable and honest than most of the work in the field, . . . is quite original, and should help to move this important area of the social sciences ahead."-J. David Singer University of Michigan

Author Bio

EUGENE J. MEEHAN is Curators Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is the author of many books, including Ethics for Policymaking: A Methodological Analysis (1990), Cognitive Education and Testing: A Methodological Approach (1991), Economic and Policymaking: The Tragic Illusion (1982), and Reasoned Argument in Social Science (1981), all published by Greenwood Press.