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Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a persistent one: introduction to the performance measurement symposium

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorWouter Van Dooren,Steven Van de Walle
Published date01 December 2008
Date01 December 2008
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/0020852308098466
Subject MatterArticles
/tmp/tmp-18OeuNDKPusiCW/input International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a persistent one:
introduction to the performance measurement symposium
Wouter Van Dooren and Steven Van de Walle1
The performance literature often draws the distinction between ‘objective’ and
‘subjective’ measures (OECD, 2006). For example, citizens’ fear of crime is said to be
‘subjective’ because it rests on the expression of individual opinion while crime inci-
dence statistics are seen as objective. The relative utility of objective and subjective
approaches is in fact a classic debate in social measurement. In the 1970s, there was
a clear divide between the Scandinavian and the Anglo-American schools of the
social indicator movement (Cobb and Rixford, 1998). Following the Nordic perspec-
tive, quality of life was assessed through measures of real deprivation such as
income, quality of housing, schooling, etc. The Americans, on the other hand, defined
quality of life based on citizens’ experiences. Since the 1970s, the debate has
changed in two respects.
First, the positions seem no longer attributable to geographical circumscriptions.
Rather, it has become a debate between scientific positions. On the one hand, there
is the Popperian tradition that assumes an objective truth independent of the know-
ing subject. It implies that performance is a reality that can be uncovered through
measurement. On the other hand, the Kuhnian tradition assumes that truth in science
is a socially constructed paradigm. Performance in this view is intersubjective rather
than objective, and measurement is an integral part of the definition of performance.
Generally speaking, it seems that the Popperian tradition is more widespread in
economics while the Kuhnian approach has more adherents in public administration
and political science. We do not believe, however, that this is fundamentally a differ-
ence between disciplines. Economic concepts such as supply, demand, cost and
benefits of measurement can...

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