Who said what and what it means: Synthesis of the 1988 annual conference plenary addresses

Abstract

The 1988 AEA annual meeting featured three plenary addresses offering useful-sometimes dramatically so-insights related to the conference's theme: Evaluation and Politics. A fourth presentation, made under the heading of "Presidential Remarks" by Association President Michael Quinn Patton, provided an intriguing introduction to the field of scholarly futurist literature and its potential application to one of the most neglected tasks in the field of evaluation, the shaping of effective recommendations. The first plenary address was made by John Brandl, presently Minnesota state senator and formerly four-time Minnesota state representative, deputy assistant undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare in Washington, and executive director of the Hubert H, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. With his unique experience in the worlds of both practical politics and academe, Brandl offered an unusually thoughtful presentation on the conference theme. The thesis of his presentation was that the relationship between evaluation and politics is changing and may now require a new understanding of both. In support of this theme he developed four main points that may be summarized briefly as follows: