This article focuses on the theoretical development of evaluation research from the perspective of public-policy analysis. The discontinuity between the first stage of evaluation research and its more recent stage is assessed by arguing that the main problems in early evaluation research were related to an inadequate conceptualization of the evaluator's role, whilst the recent debate in evaluation research correctly acknowledges the endogeneity of the evaluator to the policy process. Consequently, it seems possible to elaborate upon this by investigating the strategies available to the evaluator as actor. In this respect the literature on the cognitive aspects of politics provides useful hints. Following a discussion of this literature, the authors argue that the choice of evaluation strategies is contingent upon the characteristics of the policy process. Two dimensions of the policy process (i.e. the degree of social conflict and the degree of innovation) are employed in order to present a typology of strategies.
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