Ex post Evaluation in Chile

This chapter evaluates the current system and process of ex post evaluation of laws in Chile. It starts by describing the structure of the Chilean government, the Chamber of Deputies, and the relationships between the different branches of government for law-making purposes. It also examines the attributions of both the executive branch and the Chamber of Deputies to conduct law evaluation. Furthermore, it looks at the methodologies used by the Law Evaluation Department of the Chilean Chamber of Deputies to assess the effects and impacts of laws, the role given to citizens’ perceptions and the main achievements, particularly the evaluation of Law 20.413, which establishes the principle of universal donor for organ transplants. The fact that the evaluation demonstrates that this law is not meeting its objectives should become an argument to strengthen evaluation processes and the institutional design of the Law Evaluation Department. Finally, this chapter makes recommendations to improve ex post law evaluation in Chile. These recommendations deal with institutional, methodological, and governance issues.