title: The politics of program evaluation: the mental health experience.
abstract: The authors discuss evaluation studies of the community mental health centers program. The emphasize that program evaluation is a political activity to influence the allocation of public resources. They examine its relationship to decision-making, power conflicts, and bureaucratic goals. They point out that the evaluator is seldom totally objective. They also emphasize the increasing use of evaluation by politicians.
mesh_terms: D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003657:Decision Making; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005380:Financing, Government; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D007878:Legislation as Topic; D011057:Politics; D011287:Prejudice; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D014481:United States