Policy Evaluation in Parliaments: Insights from Case Studies of Swiss Education Policy

This paper investigates how, and with what consequences, members of parliament use policy evaluations. Despite their essential function in the policymaking process, research investigating the relationship of knowledge and policy rarely focuses on parliaments. Nevertheless, as the concept of evidence-based policymaking has spread, members of parliament are likewise expected to draw on sound knowledge when making a decision. As a form of action-oriented knowledge, policy evaluations should meet the needs of members of parliament particularly well. Furthermore, policy evaluations and other forms of knowledge play an increasingly important role in education policy, which is the focus of this paper. The importance of knowledge in the very political parliaments is controversially discussed. Generally, it is assumed that members of parliament do barely use knowledge to make sound decisions. Rather they are assumed to use knowledge to justify and legitimate their decisions. Such political uses of knowledge are expected to be particularly pronounced in areas such as education policy, where policy measures are highly complex and their effects difficult to disentangle. This paper employs case studies to analyse the role of policy evaluations in parliamentary policymaking. Two policymaking processes in the two largest cantons of Switzerland serve as cases. The policymaking processes both deal with the introduction of a new school entrance level. The first years of school are separated between the two institutions of kindergarten and primary school in Switzerland. This separation has been increasingly called into question during the past two decades, and the cantons have tested new models of school entrance in a common experimental school project. A large, longitudinal evaluation followed this project throughout its whole duration of six years. This made this unprecedented project to a cornerstone of both Swiss education policy and research. The case studies show that the members of parliament used policy evaluations in diverse manners. The analysis of the minutes of the committee and plenary meetings shows that the members of parliament used the evaluation of the project to underpin their position and thereby focused on different results depending on their position. Other studies, such as the often-cited PISA study, were not discussed. The analysis further demonstrates that the members of parliament also criticized the evaluation and the significance of its results. In addition to this political use, the interviews with the committee members show that they also reflected on the evaluation as they could still discuss its most important results. Overall, the role of the evaluation was limited despite its extended use. The introduction of new models of school entrance likely depended largely on political factors. However, the case studies show that referring to this particular evaluation became inevitable for the members of parliament in the processes studied, which illustrates another essential function of knowledge in processes of deliberation and policymaking.