摘要
社会福利项目评估在国内方兴未艾.但社会福利项目的社会性、广泛性、复杂性及其效果的滞后性决定了其评估的艰难性.通过调查J县残疾人康复服务及其满意度评价情况,笔者发现在政府部门、康复中心、评估机构、服务对象四方主体互动下,呈现出高满意度评价.而多主体互动下的社会福利评估更为异化,形成了评估的专业性妥协、评估的机会空间、评估的权威性消解等问题,出现了普遍性高估,易使我们深陷"成效卓著的想象"而忽视或回避各种问题,进而导致各种问题越积越多而长期得不到正视与解决.因此,应警惕其背后沦为政绩证明的技术工具与避免陷入"成本—收益"的利益工具陷阱.
Abstract
The evaluation of social welfare projects has been rising in the country and is gaining momentum. The purpose of social welfare projects is to provide necessary social assistance to vulnerable groups such as the elderly,children,and people with disabilities,as well as those with special needs,in order to improve their self-care abilities and living standards. The evaluation of social welfare projects aims to mobilize efforts from all sectors of society to make the methods and processes of welfare projects more comprehensive and meticulous,thereby improving the government's public governance system and promoting the development of the social welfare sector. However,the social nature,extensiveness,complexity,and the lag in the effects of social welfare projects determine the challenges in their evaluation. Firstly,the social benefits of these projects are often difficult to measure and judge using quantitative indicators. During the evaluation process,it is also challenging for experts to score whether the expected effects have been achieved and the degree of their success,leading to a significant degree of subjectivity and arbitrariness in evaluations. Secondly,the broad nature of social welfare projects makes it difficult to evaluate them using a set or multiple sets of established indicator systems,and it is hard to clearly identify which factors have a direct impact on the projects and which factors the projects influence. The indiscriminate use of fixed indicator systems to measure projects may lead to the emergence of"pseudo-objectivity"in evaluations. Thirdly,evaluations often become a procedural step in project completion and acceptance,with evaluation reports becoming crucial for project funding. However,the value-based goals of the projects only become apparent after a considerable period,making the instrumentality of evaluation results far greater than the pursuit of value.Through investigating the rehabilitation services for people with disabilities in J County and their satisfaction evaluations,this paper has found that under the interaction of four main entities—government departments,rehabilitation centers,evaluation institutions,and service recipients—high satisfaction evaluations are presented. Observing the entire process of satisfaction evaluation for the rehabilitation center project in J County,the regulatory loopholes of the government provided opportunistic space for the rehabilitation centers and third-party evaluation institutions. The quality of social welfare project implementation and satisfaction are directly related to the government's performance and reputation. Therefore,the government fully utilizes its dominant power in the assessment indicators and result reporting,helping the satisfaction ratings of the rehabilitation center project in J County to appear higher.However,the evaluation of social welfare under multi-agent interaction becomes more alienated,leading to issues such as the compromise of professional assessment,opportunities for assessment,and the authoritative resolution of assessments.In the practical evaluation process,with the interaction of government departments,project implementers,third-party evaluation institutions,and service recipients,the level of satisfaction with project implementation directly affects the government's performance and reputation. As a result,in evaluation activities,third-party evaluation institutions may actively abandon professional values and ethical demands to facilitate the smooth completion of the project,leading to a series of "pseudo-professional"phenomena. In the interaction of government departments,project implementers,third-party evaluation institutions,and service recipients,the government not only plays the role of a funder and commissioner but also acts as a regulator. However,for a long time,the government's regulation of project imple-menters and third-party evaluation institutions has been largely absent,coupled with the inherent"dual nature of officials and civilians"and the lack of industry regulation,giving third-party evaluation institutions the space to"make decisions based on circumstances."They may flexibly determine the input of evaluations based on the level of funding provided by the government,further fostering improper motives for evaluation institutions to seek their interests. In the practical evaluation process,with the interaction of government departments,project implementers,third-party evaluation institutions,and service recipients,there is a widespread overestimation that easily leads us into the illusion of"remarkable effectiveness"neglecting or avoiding various issues,leading to the accumulation of problems that are not addressed or resolved over the long term. For this overestimation and infatuation with praise in evaluations,we should be more vigilant about the traps behind them. On the one hand,we should be wary of becoming technical tools for proving political achievements. Social welfare project evaluations increasingly fall into the trap of becoming routine and formalistic,with no one caring about how much the review can actually improve the quality of social welfare projects. On the other hand,we should be cautious of becoming tools for"cost-benefit" interests. Project evaluations only praise and avoid discussing drawbacks,and even when problems arise,they are kept within the organization as an unspoken consensus. This economic rationality driven by"cost-benefit"analysis easily leads to assessment institutions,project parties,and other multi-interest entities prioritizing short-term assessment targets over the long-term goal of enhancing public welfare,thus affecting the holistic development and improvement of social welfare.
维普
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