Public Policy in India: Transformatory Shifts or Incremental Changes?

Date01 March 2019
DOI10.1177/0019556118822030
Published date01 March 2019
Subject MatterNotes
Note
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
65(1) 225 –228, 2019
© 2019 IIPA
Reprints and permissions:
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DOI: 10.1177/0019556118822030
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Public Policy in India:
Transformatory Shifts
or Incremental
Changes?
Rumki Basu1
Public policies are proposed courses of action and governmental decisions to
realise a specific objective in a specific sector. Policy is what the governments
actually do and what subsequently happens and may involve some form of official
action or inaction regarding any issue or problem. Currently, the focus of political
science is shifting to public policy, to the description, analysis and explanation of
the causes and consequences of governmental activity. Many political scientists
believe that the study of public policy should be directed towards ensuring that
governments adopt appropriate policies to attain certain transformatory changes
or desirable social goals, notwithstanding the fact that substantial disagreement
may exist in society over what constitutes appropriate methods of promoting
public good at a given point of time.
Given the policy experiments in the 20th century, we have realised that both
‘scientism’ and ‘economism’ have their inherent limitations. However, it cannot
be denied that they need to be factored into any attempt at rational policymaking.
Sound bases of public policy is critical in every aspect of governance, not the
least for making laws or rules, but also for the execution and implementation of
the same. A particular public policy can be an overarching macro-action stating
a framework of values, or, as in most sectoral policies, part of a continuum in a
particular sector. A transformatory shift can be a paradigmatic shift in terms of a
radical break with the past in terms of societal or cultural mores, economic values
or political preferences. Small changes or reforms cannot be called a transformatory
shift though in democracies the normal practice is to progress through incremental
changes.
In India, the constitution itself was a radical shift from our customs or tradi-
tions of the past in terms of trying to impose a Western liberal democratic political
culture and way of life within a steeply hierarchical society through the inculcation
1 Department of Political Science, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
Corresponding author:
Rumki Basu, Professor of Public Administration, Department of Political Science, Jamia Millia Islamia,
New Delhi.
E-mail: rumkibasu@gmail.com

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