From Policy to Practice

Résumé du livre

The thesis is the study of a major policy change in the management of irrigation systems in Andhra Pradesh, India. The policy change was implemented with a 'big bang', and provided for decentralized management of irrigation systems, by creating Water User Associations for all irrigation systems in the state. The overall objective of the research was to identify and analyze why a reform process launched with strong political support nonetheless failed to meet its objectives. It is hypothesized that policy implementation remained poor due to inconsistencies in policy, legislation and institutions. The study of the policy formulation stage highlights that the role of a few stakeholders was critical in driving the policy process and had an impact on policy content. Analysis suggests that such top down policy processes face severe resistance to implementation from existing stakeholder networks while the failure of democratic processes inhibit policy implementation. The research explores the impact of system design on resource characteristics and management options and finds that the scope of policy outcomes are limited by the existing irrigation system designs that do not support decentralized management. The research examines the impact of functional decentralization on existing irrigation bureaucracy and the impact of their adverse response to policy adoption. Democratic processes are scrutinized to study their impact on functional effectiveness of water user associations. The analysis suggests that providing for a democratic process does not guarantee participation. The research highlights that effectiveness of a policy depends on changing the existing power structures and organizational accountability mechanisms in order to address underlying (perverse) incentive structures. The analysis of this research also suggests that there is a need to interpret the theoretical underpinnings of representative democracy with caution and within the contexts of rural realities of patronage-type village structures that exist.