Development policy: ideas and practice

Abstract

<p>The world faces major challenges due to wars, natural disasters, environmental fallout, human-itarian crises, economic downturns, political and social upheavals and global pandemics. Improving the quality of life in a hostile environment is a daunting task. Until recently, the state has been the driver of change and engine for growth. State intervention propelled the South and the East to advance but from economic perspectives - accelerated growth through robust fiscal and monetary policies, export expansion, import substitution, industrialization, infrastructure building and technological innovation (Zafarullah & Huque, 2012). State inter-vention was accompanied by policy intervention for promoting equality, equity, economy and social well-being (see Karagiannis & King, 2019). </p><p>However, with the state's roll-back shaped by neoliberal approaches to development and the ramifications of globalization, the influences and interventions of the market, private sector, non-state organizations and international regimes take on critical dimensions in development and the policy process. Arguably, with restrained state functionality and the growing intensity of self-regulating markets, the sphere of democratic policymaking has considerably shrunk and the potential for policy failures increased (Peck, Theodore & Brenner, 2012). Perhaps this can be reversed or remitted by 'inclusive neoliberalism' (Porter & Craig, 2004).</p><p> In general, the nature of the state, 'ideological' leanings of policy regimes, the structure of political power arrangements and the effects of stressors stemming from within national boundaries or beyond, determine the kind of policies to be adopted. The sorts of social, economic, environmental or technological transformation that a policy aims to attain will influence the preferences of the political leadership, amplitude of bureaucratic support, mechanics of the policy process, the degree of stakeholder involvement, force of public opinion and the influence or participation of the 'attentive' public (Burstein, 2003). Citizen engagement in the policy process is desirable, as development policies are ultimately meant for people's welfare and in response to their needs, but this often remains unattempted or difficult to realize. Development policymakers should recognize the needs, values, interests and preferences of citizens and incorporate these in the design of policies and create a public space for citizens to contribute to policymaking for the sake of transparency and accountability (Brinkerhoff & Crosby, 2002a; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2005). Policies constructed on concrete evidence are more likely to produce valid results than those based on grapevine, anecdotes and biased judgment (Head, 2016). To obtain responsiveness to policy obligations and secure reasonable policy outcomes, implementation snags caused by policy accumulation need removal (Adam et al., 2019; Knill, Steinbacher & Steinebach, 2020).</p>