DEMOCRACY FOR PUBLIC POLICIES
Democracy is a system in which those in power are duty bound to listen what the public in general are demanding. Public demands force the democratically elected leaders to act. It is true that even in a classically perfect democracy those who are at the top may try to enforce their own ideas as policies in the name of some public good but policies are not the handiwork of the governments only. Governments have to listen to voters as the governments are aware that they will have to be answerable to the voters in parliament, and on other plateforms and ultimately in the next elections when they go for being reelected. So people's voice must get a space in the area of public policy.
While choosing a public policy to be implemented the steps that may involve include--
1. Identification of a problem which is a public problem
2. Identification of Possible intents and goals
3. Identification of possible alternatives to achieve those goals
4. Finalising one option as a public policy
5. Finalizing implementation strategy
6. Monitoring, improvement and reshaping.
7. Intermittent evaluation
All steps involve discussions and debates. A healthy democracy is that where voters and general public are aware of what is going on and where public have sufficient forum to express their ideas, opinions, apprehensions and suggestions.
Problem in Indian system of democratic governance is that here elite and leaders are fanciful of providing policies without acknowledging the reality that considering the dimensions of problems and size of population they have not the adequate information and skill to decide about a policy. Of course leaders must have ideas and ideologies but they should entrust the task to evaluate their applicability feasibility and utility to specialists and if every thing is all right direct them to translate such ideas and ideologies into policies. And if such leaders have something to offer about applicability and utility they should let the discussions happen and then take decision on the basis of voting. We have seen the disastrous policy implementation in many cases e.g. in cases of demonetization, lockdown, etc. These were in fact not policy decisions but they were just authoritarian whimsical decisions.
A human being is a social being and her or his personality is constructed by influences listed below
1. Genetic make up(and this is to be investigated for each individual separately)
2. Cognitive ability
3. Group memberships
4. Emotions
5. Beliefs and attitudes
6. Identity
7. Media exposure
8. Social networks
9. Elites/group leaders
10. Education
11. Life experiences
12. Institutional arrangements
13. Laws/Norms/Traditions
14. Social structure and social order
Every person has a political opinion and that is created by various factors mentioned above. So when policy areas are to be identified and policies are to be formulated policy makers must also take public opinions as their guide . If opinions are taken or discussed before hand there is greater chance of adherence and compliance. As we have seen in case of Anti farm law agitations of farmers. When Farm Laws were passed there were virtually no consultation with essential stakeholders , that is farmers and that led to intensive farmer's agitation against these laws which culminated into withdrawal of laws. Since every person is a political person and democracy calls for listening to every interested person consultations and taking stock of public opinions matter a lot.
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