Evaluation politics in international organizations

Abstract The aim of Chapter 3 is to clarify what exactly makes evaluation political and how one could study these politics in international organizations (IOs). The chapter presents a review of the state of the art about the political function of evaluation and explains why it matters. It also outlines the main evaluation stakeholders in IOs, introducing member states and international public administrations (IPAs) as key actors. Building on principal–agent theory and previous IO research, expectations about stakeholder political interests and how evaluation can facilitate them are developed. This way, the chapter introduces the book’s conceptual and theoretical framework, including theorized hypotheses that are tested in the remainder of the book.