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statistics on a continuous basis. It is usually easy to say what we have spent or where we
have increased spending.
But for politicians, qualitative evaluations are equally important. These evaluations
concern what quality we deliver to the citizens rather than how much money is spent
within each portfolio.
We need of course to have quantitative measures for delivery, such as number of people
who have services, children in child care, air pollution, recycling, energy consumption, etc.
The picture we receive is a good start but it is not enough to give a full understanding of
the citizen’s perception of what we deliver. Are people content? How well do they think
different services function? What is bad? What is not functioning? What do they want to
change? How do the citizens grade the municipality? How do they grade us as local
politicians and the work we are doing?
By answering these questions we can assess to see if we have reached a goal such as “80
percent of the citizens perceive the municipal service as good or very good.” Measuring
attitudes can be done through different forms of questionnaires, surveys or studies or
through interviews with service clients. It is important that such evaluation is done in a
reliable and relevant way and that the same measures are used over a longer period of time.
EVALUATING OUR POLITICAL WORK
Our own goals as local politicians must also be formulated in ways that allow them to be
measured. These can be goals targeting:
Contacts with the citizens, service client groups, NGOs, organizations
Attitudes towards us from different groups
Contacts with media, participation in local media
Contacts with municipal staff
Our planning should consist of both quantitative and qualitative measures.
Furthermore, we should take stock at least once a year and see if, and what, we may need
to change. Mostly we evaluate on the basis of our day-to-day interaction with people and
our work, but of course we can also utilize a questionnaire if it is relevant.