Democratic Governance and Policymaking

Welcome to the Democratic Governance and Policymaking course! In this course, you will learn that all citizens collectively desire public goods such as justice, peace, and welfare, but beyond their individual means. A state is a politically organized society to fulfill citizens’ public good needs. Politics is an activity in pursuit of the collective interests of the citizens. Policymaking is a collective action to identify, adequately provide, and equitably allocate desired public goods. However, arriving at a collective choice on who gets what, when, and how much, and who decides and how, faces joint action problems. This often leads to a policy gap between citizens’ preferences and policy provision, resulting in a loss of well-being. Governance in policymaking is about providing stewardship to these collective efforts through institutional mechanisms to minimize the policy gap. Democracy in governance is about the active participation of citizens, directly or indirectly, at all stages of policymaking. This course aims to provide an applied appreciation of the role of citizen participation in effective policymaking. As it attempts to do so, it juxtaposes democratic principles with empirical evidence to gain insights into what works, what does not, and why in the practice of democratic governance. The course is structured as follows. Module one describes the context leading to the policy gap. Modules two to four examine the institutional arrangements for policymaking in democratic governance. Modules five and six explain how democratic governance can reduce the policy gap. Module seven concludes with approaches for measuring democratic governance and its determinants.