Values and Value in Public Action: What Role for Evaluation in the Making of Public Policy?[Valeurs et valeur de l’action publique : quelle place pour l’évaluation dans la fabrique de l’action publique ?]

In a context marked by a crisis of democratic representation, growing demands for transparency and citizen participation, and ongoing managerial transformations within local governments, this paper examines the role of public policy evaluation as a space of mediation between the values underpinning public action and the value effectively produced by public policies. While New Public Management has strengthened performance-oriented logics and short-term indicators, public policy evaluation in France remains weakly institutionalized and is often reduced to an instrumental function. Drawing on a literature review at the intersection of the sociology of evaluation, pragmatist philosophy, and theories of collective action, this contribution proposes moving beyond a technicist conception of evaluation to consider it as a deliberative process through which collective meaning is constructed. The works of John Dewey and Mary Parker Follett provide a theoretical framework for understanding evaluation as a space of inquiry, discussion, and co-construction of public values, where value cannot be reduced to measurable efficiency alone but emerges through collective experience and democratic deliberation. The paper therefore argues that evaluation should be understood not only as a tool for assessing public policies, but also as a process through which collective values are produced and renewed at the core of the democratic legitimacy of local governments