Blame avoidance, scapegoats and spin: Why Dutch politicians won’t evaluate ZBO-outcomes

Abstract

Despite high expectations about the results of agencification and a legal obligation to evaluate executive agencies, ministers and MPs seem not very interested in evaluating agencies’ results. Hood’s theory on blame avoidance is used to explain the lack of evaluation in the case of the Dutch ZBOs. Only one in seven ZBOs is evaluated as frequently as mandated. Findings show that ZBO evaluations are more an administrative than a political process. Reports do not offer hard evidence and are seldom used in parliamentary debates. There are no clear patterns as to which ZBOs are evaluated more, or less, often.