‘Policy Dialogues

Dec 09, 2012 Editorial

Now that everyone agrees that our politicians have wasted a whole year in fighting over who should control power rather than how to use that power for the development of our country, maybe in this second year, a lesson has been learnt.
During their campaigns, the parties all came out with a plethora of policies for addressing the various challenges that confront our country. We believe that in this ‘new dispensation” they should take advantage of this burst of creativity and ingenuity by initiating (at a minimum) what has been called, “policy dialogues”. The forum has been created in the Tripartite Talks initiated by President Ramotar, which might be broadened by the Social Partners of business, labour.
Policy dialogues are carefully constructed, deliberative meetings that address both politically controversial and technically complex aspects of an issue in a dispute. Generally speaking, policy dialogues seek to exchange information and build consensus recommendations between the public, private, and civic sectors through leaders who are in a position to forge alliances, make decisions, or strongly influence the trajectory of a possible solution to a challenging issue.
Policy dialogues generally: bring diverse interest groups to the table, focus on a regulatory, policy, or planning issue that is of common interest, have a life cycle with a beginning, middle, and end, and seek to formulate practical solutions to complex problems.
The idea of democracy is founded on the persistent belief that citizens can, through effective deliberation, govern themselves. Not only can they, they should. Democracy assumes that ordinary people have the capacity, the means, and the will to participate in the shaping of key decisions that affect their own welfare.
They do this through both elected representation in formal bodies, and participation and effective deliberation in informal decision-making mechanisms that influence formal processes. The idea of discussion and problem solving is fundamental.
Unfortunately, “effective deliberation” — particularly in the face of a potent and highly controversial issue — is often problematic, especially in our fractured polity.
In everyday parlance, deliberation is the act of thinking about a difficult or complex subject. In formally constituted bodies governed by parliamentary procedures, deliberation requires an on-the-record discussion of the reasons for or against passage of a measure.
In policy dialogues aimed at grappling with a stubborn problem, deliberation has more textured meanings and nuanced applications. It is aimed at combating impatience, intolerance, and incivility and in furtherance of constructive and feasible solutions.
Too frequently, as we have seen in the past year, discussions on important civic and public interest matters are defeated for the wrong reasons. In some cases, there is no shared or accepted process for dialogue.
Sometimes, lack of a clear deliberation process leads to a premature push for decisions and “us” versus “them” votes. Communication breakdowns often trigger an escalating spiral of suspicion with increased tension and confusion between procedural, substantive, and relationship issues.
In the most extreme situations, people of normal integrity and good will actively seek to defeat each other and, in the words of one writer, go “together into the abyss.” This we must do everything to avoid.
Successful policy deliberations tend to progress through three broad phases: (a) issue focusing and convening; (b) information exchange and discussion; and (c) solution-seeking and consensus building. We can do worse than have our three parliamentary parties start over once again on next year’s budget. The process has already begun with the Opposition parties submitting broad areas in which they would like to have the budget focus on.
These should be carefully evaluated by the technical teams in the Budget Office within the Ministry of Finance. The “issue focusing and convening with information exchange and discussion” stages will occur here. Their recommendations should be submitted to the President who would then discuss them with his cabinet.
Their recommendations can then be taken into the broadened Tripartite Talks with the leaders of the two Opposition parties, along with the leaders of business and labour. This is where binding decisions can be arrived at through “solution-seeking and consensus building”.

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‘Policy Dialogues

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