Acts of Faith: Civil society and the policy process in Ghana and two Indian states
James Manor
Download NGPA Research Paper 35| (PDF)
This paper compares efforts by civil society organisations (CSOs) to influence policy communities and processes in Ghana and two contrasting Indian states. It considers their impact at the international and local levels -- and at the national level in Ghana and India, and the state level in India.
Only one Indian CSO is analysed because it undertook the full array of tasks that are required to make a policy impact. Three are analysed in Ghana since no single organisation performed those diverse tasks - policy analysis, lobbying, organising at the local level, integrating local and higher levels, coordinating the work of other CSOs, disseminating ideas at all levels, etc.
Rather surprisingly, the extreme cases here are the two Indian states. The government in one sought aggressively to exert centralised control over the political and policy processes - and was thus intensely hostile to civil society and to all other independent power centres. The government in the other stressed decentralisation and adopted (within limits) more liberal postures.
The Ghanaian government fell between these extremes.
These CSOs' international connections ranged from tenuous to strong. Those with strong ties could influence international policy communities. But it was far more difficult to make an impact within Ghana and the Indian states.
Even in the most liberal system, CSOs found it exceedingly difficult to make an impact on both policy formulation and implementation - because all three governments were reluctant to permit them to exert influence. But CSOs also lack 'reach' - the ability to engage with large portions of the local populations. Their organisational resources, even at their best, were unequal to the demands of the roles that they had adopted. Thus, while their values and commitment were admirable, they were largely engaged in 'acts of faith' - efforts to achieve constructive incremental changes which might one day make more promising state-society relations possible. Enlightened CSOs richly deserve support. But if we wish to see early, substantial improvements in the policy sphere, we must concentrate on persuading government actors to adopt more constructive postures.