A system for defining, disseminating, and evaluating policies in a policy-based decision system includes a unit for defining a hierarchy of policy groups, a unit for associating a group of orthogonal parameters with at least one policy group, a unit for defining at least one policy for one or more policy groups in said hierarchy, a unit for disseminating policies to one or more decision making component for at least one policy group in said hierarchy, and a unit for evaluating policies for at least one policy groups in the hierarchy.