The Measure of Success for Beyond Dependency: Aims, Methods and Evaluation

Susan St John

New Zealand has been acclaimed internationally for its framework for economic management, but it has been suggested that this should be balanced by an examination of the impact on social goals. Thinking about welfare reform raises the fundamental question: “What are we trying to achieve?” In answering this, it is all too easy to define outcomes in a way that reinforces the prejudices of policy makers about how things ought to work.

This paper uses the distinction between left-wing social liberals and right-wing conservatives to look at how our inherent political philosophy influences the way we interpret the word “dependency”. I attempt to show that if we dig beyond the rhetoric and positioning of both sides we find a surprising commonality of goals. In essence, these are different hypotheses about the way the world works and in principle should be capable of empirical validation. The more the debate can centre around the empirical and less around the ideological the better.

Critically, if evaluation is to be useful we must frame the question in a way that reflects our ultimate goals, and this broader vision of a better society must include the perceptions and well-being of those who are the focus of our concern.