It is widely accepted that civil society is a major instrument of policy advocacy and that policy reforms take place through direct civil society interventions. While this may be true for particular periods of totalitarian regimes, the nature of civil society contribution to policy reforms is much more complex in democratic political systems. What is the best way for civil society to contribute in policy reforms? How can civil society’s engagement in the policy-making process benefit the marginalised the most?
The paper from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) attempts to answer these questions by presenting the results of an analysis of 15 case studies from the Indian experience. This analysis indicates that there are three ways in which civil society engages in the policy making process in that country: resisting policy reform, including certain constituencies in policy making and implementing existing progressive public policies. It concludes that the latter type of intervention is the least visible and analysed, yet the most urgently needed to bring better and more concrete results in favour of marginalised communities.
Civil society contribution in the area of implementing public policy commitments has become most urgent arena for action. Other findings from the paper are:
- A vast section of the civil society, even in a country like India, does not at all relate with the policy system. It is primarily engaged in direct service delivery or socio-cultural pursuits
- A vast section of the civil society does not even understand how policy is formulated, implemented or not – the political economy of public policy making remains largely an unknown territory for much of civil society
- The most prevalent and visible engagement of civil society with the public policy making system is to resist policy reform. Civil action begins when policy has actually been made and gets presented in the public domain
- Engagement by civil society that results in inclusion of certain constituencies and perspectives in policy making is less frequent and less visible. Yet, this type of engagement has long-term policy gains for marginalised communities
- Many advocates of civil society do not consider engagement in implementation of already existing progressive public policies relevant to policy reform at all
- Dealing with local level government officials and local vested interests requires more careful balancing of confrontation and cooperation strategies and it does not have all the glamour of media visibility.
Policy implications include the need to:
- Promote civil society engagement in the area of public policy commitments to ensure that those commitments are converted into proper operational rules and procedures.
