Proceeding in parallel or drifting apart? A systematic review of policy appraisal research and practices

Policy appraisal has spread rapidly throughout the OECD and beyond, as has the associated academic literature. In this paper we present the findings of a systematic review of this literature. We assess the extent to which developments in academic research and in everyday appraisal practices have informed one other. While there are signs that policy appraisal research is moving away from the ‘technical–rational model’ of appraisal, both research and practice remain heavily informed by it. The review reveals that research and practice are interacting in subtle ways, but these fall well short of what is sought by advocates of more reflexive approaches. We systematically examine the exact pattern of research–practice interaction depicted in the literature and explore how this may change in the future.