Intro: Learning to see things through a Policy-lens

A given policy system consists on the “overall political pattern within which policies are made”.

Policy environment, policy landscape and policy stakeholders (agency)

Draft:

No policy stands alone

Developing specific policies imply mapping the overall legal provisions that constitute a given political system, outlining challenges and opportunities with respect to concertations' goals. Indeed, policy development should necessarily be undertaken to address a legal gap or loophole, whose missing provision prevent full access to rights, the sustainability of previous policies, or overall fulfilment of societies' objectives.

Each INSPIRED project gives opportunities for scale-up in many ways, be it horizontally (advocacy and outreach capacity of involved CSOs), cross-sectorial (enabling stakeholders to replicate the methods in other spheres), partnerships-oriented (coalition-building between CSOs and LPAs), and eventually stimulating democratic snowball effect (infusing culture of deliberation to communities).

System-thinking approach in policymaking helps INSPIRED facilitators to conceptualise comprehensive settings for making up policies. Doing so, stakeholders are encouraged to think broadly of policies' impacts and to adopt a holistic vision of the role of given policies in the social organisation at every layer.

Types of policies according to Theodore J. Lowi

Every single aspect possible might be subjected to policy. As social problems require public decisions, particular policies have the ability to leverage change by transcribing decisions in the law, framing thus how public authorities address - or do not address directly - the relevant spheres.

In the article "Four Systems of Policy, Politics and Choice" (1972), political scientist Theodore J. Lowi proposed different types of policies: distributive, redistributive, regulatory and constituent. How can INSPIRED foster dialogue in their formulation?

  • Distributive policies:

These are the policies developed by the state to provide citizens with services (welfare, public education, public transportation, etc).

INSPIRED fits with the management this kind of policies because it enables them to respond to the population's expectations, needs and views of services. In turn, it leads to enhance policy' effectiveness, social cohesion and budget expenditure efficiency, because the redistributive policies achieve clear objectives, whose implementation and results have been approved in a deliberative manner.

  • Redistributive policies:

These are policies dealing with the dispatching wealth and income between groups of society.

INSPIRED added-value in redistributive policy-making is that it enables the creation of consensus upon a common social project based on the agreed division of state resources. As this is in many countries a controversial topic, INSPIRED help policy-makers and CSOs formulate inclusive policies matching with the needs of the citizens.

  • Regulatory policies:

There are sets of binding constraints and rules that make community life possible. Though they inherently limit discretion and compel freedoms, they are beneficial to overall social well-being. They include for instance traffic regulations, tax system, civil and criminal codes.

INSPIRED enjoys a real comparative advantage in regulatory policymaking, because participation enhances the legitimacy of such policies, and enables elaborating sets of frameworks that fit with citizens' liability limits. In a sense, the design and implementation of regulatory policies using INSPIRED give democratic significance to both the policy in itself and the social norms produced as an outcome.

  • Constituent policies:

These are the regal policies, those that build up institutions, framework laws, and the overall functioning of a state's system. For practitioners of democracy support, this is obviously one of the main pillars granting countries with foundations embedded in the Rule of Law and international democratic standards.

INSPIRED has proved its effectiveness in being a tool for dialogue in transitioning countries and brings stakeholders with different interests in the constitution of the new political frameworks, at different scales.

Types of development policies

Less traditional, there are also types of policies inherently related to development targets, from which INSPIRED draws its main experience.

  • Sectorial policies

Because development of systems needs a comprehensive work, policy-makers should target sectorial areas individually from a global perspective. This implies that INSPIRED should be used in peculiar policy areas to use its leverage potential as a whole.

For instance, implementing INSPIRED in the health sector in a given region would, as a snowball effect, open the valves of dialogue in another sector in the same or other regions.

Unlocking deliberative potentials takes time. If effective outreach on INSPIRED is conducted, it often leads to demands of deliberation in other sectors and region of a given country.

  • Development plans

Long-term development strategies or plans are required at the national and local levels for policy-makers to follow a clear path of actions. These plans are often legally non-binding, but politically significant.

In such contexts, INSPIRED offers communities the benefits of the consensus-based roadmap, that incorporates the vision of all for development to be inclusive, and truly democratic. Projects' evaluation and outcomes have shown that development is possible only if society as a whole is involved in agenda-making and definition of common priorities.

  • Global / International policies

International conventions and agreements are binding treaties between countries or with international organisations, aiming at regulating globalisation and providing citizens with norms that their states should respect. Yet, it is often challenging for states to truly translated into national laws these obligations. Relevant stakeholders - civil servants (policy implementers), citizens (policy beneficiaries), decision-takers (policy-makers) - are encouraged to engage in dialogue for reforms and legislation harmonisation to be effective, and truly reflects the alignments of countries to international engagement.

In Pakistan's women workers communities of Punjab, INSPIRED showed that there was a lack of gender sensitivity in implementation mechanisms and weak compliance of constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights, signed international conventions, treaties and commitments.

Both the Participatory Policy Assessment and the Roadmap for Reform led to enhanced awareness of the issues and eventually reforms enabling significative change in the field.

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