First wave: from the beginning to the 1960s

Evaluation first emerged in the United States in the 1930s in the form of research on education and infrastructure programmes. Studies became widespread in the early 1960s.

Towards the close of the 1960s, when the legitimacy of government intervention was perceived as waning, validation was sought in science and experiment, which then became the dominant methodological approach. Evaluation became synonymous with measuring and quantifying the outcomes of government action, and was regarded as being at the service of decision-makers.

In Europe, the practice of public policy evaluation began to spread as a result of the concepts devised and lessons learned in the United States.

Second wave: 1960s to 1970s

Third wave: the 1980s

Evaluation started to arouse interest in legislative and parliamentary circles, and to be viewed as a way to judge policies and programmes, with a focus that went beyond their specific objectives to the social impacts emerging after a given intervention.

In Europe, the increasing sophistication of management and control of the European Community’s structural funds – designed to aid Member States’ development and balance – led to wider use of evaluation systems, which now extended to civil society as a whole, non-governmental organisations, and other fields.

The EU undertook evaluation processes from a very wide range of academic and professional perspectives, and became more highly institutionalised in northern Europe.

Fourth wave: the 1990s

Evaluation lies within an arena of debate shaped by the values and interests of social actors. Currents in favour of evaluation emerged in most countries of the European Union, Evaluation institutes and societies were created, and for over a decade a broad-based movement of knowledge and experiences was developed. It was embedded in the new knowledge society and found a catalyst in the growth of networks of information exchange.