Far more than a contractual step, commissioning shapes what is evaluated, whose voices matter and how evidence informs democratic governance. The Power of Commissioning: Enabling Democratic Evaluation brings long-overdue attention to this influential yet often- overlooked dimension of evaluation practice.

Positioning commissioners as civic and political actors, the book shows how their choices, from problem framing and terms of reference to team selection, management and use can either reinforce technocratic routines or actively promote inclusion, transparency, equity and meaningful public learning. Drawing on comparative empirical cases, it offers one of the first integrated frameworks for democratic commissioning, complete with practical principles, rubrics and clear “dos and don’ts” that commissioners can apply directly in real systems. The volume also advances a pioneering competency model for commissioners and documents innovative capacity- building initiatives that treat them as knowledge brokers and democratic agents, an area largely absent from existing evaluation guidance.

Featuring contributions from leading scholars and practitioners in the field, The Power of Commissioning provides both conceptual depth and actionable tools. It is an essential resource for researchers, policymakers, evaluators and commissioning professionals committed to strengthening democratic practice through evaluation.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Nicoletta Stame is Emerita Professor of Social Policy at “Sapienza” University of Rome. She is a past president of the Italian Evaluation Association and of the European Evaluation Society and associate editor of Evaluation. Nicoletta is interested in the theory and methods of evaluation, on which she has published widely in Italian and international journals and edited books.

María Bustelo is Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), where she has directed the Master on Evaluation of Programmes and Public Policies since 2002. She is an EES past president (2012– 2013) and an Executive Board member of the Spanish Evaluation National Agency (AEVAL) (2007– 2012). She specializes in evaluation, gender and institutionalization.