Public Policy Implementation in a Democratic Governance Society: A Roadmap to Empowering Citizen Participation: An Empirical Study

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Contents

CHAPTER 1 DEFINITION OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE............................................................1History Evolution of Democracy............................................................................4The economics of Poverty, Inequality Discrimination, Gender and Violence..................................7Corruption as the Reason for the Problems in Government...................................................12CHAPTER 2 GENERAL SOURCES OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE.......................................................17Ethnicity and Democracy...................................................................................21Training..................................................................................................22Education.................................................................................................22Globalization Effects on Organizational Change............................................................30Migration is another important factor on why we need globalization........................................31Gender, Diversity, and Feminist Approaches to Leadership..................................................32Technological Effects on Third-World Nations..............................................................32CHAPTER 3 SOURCES OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE...............................................................35Culture, Modernization, and Decentralization as an agent of democratic governance.........................36Political and Economical development as an agent of Democratic Governance.................................38Motivation as an agent of Democratic Governance...........................................................40Globalization as an agent of Democratic Governance........................................................41Information Technology as agent of Democratic Governance and development..................................42Democratic Governance-culture, political, economical, empowerment, and globalization......................44Power, Diversity, and Culture.............................................................................46Summary and conclusions...................................................................................49CHAPTER 4 INTRODUCTION TO THE CASE STUDY.................................................................59Introduction..............................................................................................59Statement of the Problem..................................................................................61Background of the Problem.................................................................................61Purpose of the Study......................................................................................62Research Questions........................................................................................63Objectives of the Study...................................................................................63Significance of the Study.................................................................................64Public managers' perception about Empowerment.............................................................64Motivational Theories.....................................................................................68Motivational and maintenance factors - Work and achievement...............................................76Effect of Change on an Organization.......................................................................82Perspectives on Empowerment...............................................................................84Management Practices......................................................................................87Motivation................................................................................................89Motivational Development..................................................................................90Empowerment and Servant Leadership........................................................................92Leadership and Management.................................................................................94Issues Affecting Leadership and Organizational Change.....................................................97Summary...................................................................................................98CHAPTER 5 LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................103Introduction..............................................................................................103Description of the Literature Search......................................................................103Public managers' perception of Empowerment................................................................108Motivational Theories.....................................................................................112Effect of Change on an Organization.......................................................................125Perspectives on Empowerment...............................................................................128Management Practices......................................................................................131Motivation................................................................................................132Motivational Development..................................................................................134Empowerment and Servant Leadership........................................................................136Leadership and Management.................................................................................138Issues Affecting Leadership and Organizational Change.....................................................141Summary...................................................................................................142CHAPTER 6 HOW DATA WERE COLLECTED........................................................................147Introduction..............................................................................................147Research Design...........................................................................................147The Case Study............................................................................................148Advantages and Disadvantages of the Case Study Method.....................................................150Characteristics of Qualitative Research...................................................................151Data Collection and Analysis..............................................................................157Summary...................................................................................................159CHAPTER 7 RESEARCH RESULTS...............................................................................163Introduction..............................................................................................163Data Analysis.............................................................................................164Survey Questions..........................................................................................167Summary of Survey Findings................................................................................173Chronological Order of Interview Dates with Participants..................................................175Comparison of Survey and Interview Responses..............................................................189CHAPTER 8 SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS......................................................193Introduction..............................................................................................193Conclusions...............................................................................................193Umunneochi LGA's Key Objectives for 2015..................................................................196Implications for Change and Social Impact.................................................................197Practice-Focused Recommendations..........................................................................200Recommendations for Future Research.......................................................................202Summary...................................................................................................202APPENDIX..................................................................................................205REFERENCES................................................................................................211

Chapter One

Democratic governance is a process whereby citizens exercise freedom of speech in a civil society, free and fair electoral process, and are protected by the rule of law. Democratic governance is defined by Oyediran (1981) as a state or condition of society in which the members as individuals possess and enjoy, within limits, full civil and religious rights, and the freedom not to be coerced or controlled by the arbitrary will of others, especially the rulers. Richard (1987) stated democratic governance is indeed a set of ideas and principles about freedom vested in the people and exercised directly by them or through their elected officials under a free electoral system. In the words of Abraham Lincoln, democracy is a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." Yet the power of the democratic idea has also evoked some of the history's most profound and moving neoclassical and contemporary theorists from Tocqueville to Woodrow Wilson.

The International Forum for Democratic Development, an initiative of the United Nations defines democratic governance as:

As a society which involves in public debate and open decision-making, the organization of interests groups, and the free exchange of ideas, opinions and information among its people. "It includes institutions and processes that are more responsive to the needs of ordinary citizens, including the poor. A society that brings people together within nations and around the world, building partnerships and sharing ways to promote participation, accountability and effectiveness at all levels. The pursuit of this will involves strengthening their electoral and legislative systems, improve access to justice and public administration, and develop a greater capacity to deliver basic services to those most in need."

Before theories from the classical and contemporary eras are discussed, it will be important to briefly discuss general contributors to Democratic governance development in technology, decentralization, economical and political issues, war, ethnicity, crime, slavery, poverty, culture, globalization, religion, empowerment, and much more.

In a global economy, organizations need to adapt to different forces that impact organizational change. These forces can either be from internal or external forces. Organizational systems involve people, hierarchies, interactions from processes, as well as well as human dynamics, individuals, group, and enterprise. Drucker's (1995) business model has some very important element in it. These elements can be factored to a leader's thinking as change is contemplated. Remember, however, nothing stands alone, no single model or course of instruction, everything is interrelated! Leaders must think systems! Make sure you do.

Drucker's Theory of business has three assumptions about the organizations:-

Environment which consists of four elements:

Society and its structure

The Market

The customer

Technology

Specific Mission and

Core Competencies

Scholl (2002) stated that leaders generally do not change their structures and cultures for sake of change. Rather, they believe that changing these organizational attributes will contribute to greater organizational performance or effectiveness. According to Scholl, organizational change can be viewed from at least three levels:

1. Individual behaviors, which include the ultimate targets of the change.

2. Organizational systems or processes, which include the focus of the change.

3. Organizational performance, which identifies the reason/ rationale for the change.

Spreitzer (1996) found that employees who are empowered have less ambiguity about their role in the organization. The leaders in empowered organizations have a wide span of control, which leads to more autonomy for the employees. Empowered employees feel that the organization provides them with sociopolitical support, gives them greater access to information and resources than traditional organizations, and makes their work climate participatory. The rapidity of change, global competition, and other economic realities are causing organizations to review their management philosophies and organizational structures. As the role of technology expands, and as traditional, multitiered structures crumble, the human element is increasingly being recognized as critical in determining the viability and effectiveness of an enterprise.

Bloom (1999) contended that change does not happen abstractly; change happens because communities, societies, countries, and individuals recognize a need for change. Drucker (1999) encouraged change agents or those who implement change to lead the company and people through change instead of managing change. Change agents should be leaders of change instead of being managers of change, because change should be regarded as an opportunity. Change is a necessary way of life in most organizations (Davis, 1981). Change occurs in different forms either in the social environment, through biological processes, politically, economically, or in a person's individual life. According to Davis, work change refers to any alteration that occurs in the work environment. The concept of empowerment, as has been argued by many management theorists, represents a source of confusion and conflict between management and employees because of the conflicts and tensions empowerment generates in management thinking and the potential for resistance. Some theorists believe that employee empowerment allows for self-direction, self-development, and personal growth. Others maintain that it is associated with meeting the organizational needs for high levels of performance.

History Evolution of Democracy

The historical evolution of democracy, started by Alexis de Tocqueville (1835/2003) in his Democracy in America in the early nineteenth century, and eventually spread throughout Europe. When Aristotle wrote about democracy (1260), he was talking about a democracy in which all citizens are to rule and be ruled in turn. Thus a government is a democracy when most offices are filled by election, are held for long terms, or involve an extensive policymaking role. He emphasized the importance of laws in the governance of any society as the bed-rock of any democratic country.

Tocqueville believed that citizen-based democracy would have the most impact at the local level rather than the federal government. Tocqueville's fears of a corrosive democratic individualism and his solution to the problem is the involvement of citizens in the political affairs of their communities, which can be achieved by enhancing the power and authority of local governments; and that this will draw individuals out of their isolation and into contact with one another to exercise that power. He emphasized that it is important to understand in general how men's affections are drawn only in directions where power exists.

Tocqueville (1835/2003) argued that only strong local government, with a genuine power to make decisions, will affect the lives of its citizens to participate. Tocqueville said, in the process of participating, individuals would be increasingly exposed to the real political world. Tocqueville further states one must bring men constantly close, despite their instincts that separate them, and force them to hear and to know and to help one another. He attests that local government would be a subtle treatment for the subtle isolation of the Information Age citizen. By devolving greater authority to states and especially localities, for instance in matters of education or welfare, we might draw the politically engaged away from their desks and toward the town hall. There they will find themselves exposed to political and intellectual influences that they did not select in advance.

Alexis de Tocqueville's sociological analysis of the America polity to a consideration of workplace decision making was a congruent one in which he analyze how national character affects the system of decision making and the linkage between equality and liberty. Tocqueville (1835/2003), summed his American experience by saying that he confess that in America he saw more than America; he sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions in order to learn what we have to fear or hope from its progress.

Tocqueville (1835/2003), Bryce (1920), and Eckstein (1966), discuss factors affecting democracy such as equality, liberty, isolation, self-centeredness, religion, political, economic, technology, globalization, and culture. Weber argued that capitalism distinctly differs from any other orders primarily because it is based and oriented toward an ascending rationality. Weber (1973) rejected prevalent evolutionary and mono-causal theories including Marxism. He traced human history through the process of rationalization of human life. His model of social change entails a multidimensional triumph of reason, which slowly came to pervade every idea of social life and which has led to the disenchantment of the world, the fall from prominence of such things as magic, charisma, and affectivity in the legitimization of authority and social wisdom (Hadis, 2001). Tocqueville argued that social disparities among individuals are normally the result of circumstances of birth: one is born into royalty, nobility, or to a wealthy-class family.

Bryce (1920), attested that there is nothing more vital to a country's democratic progress than the spontaneous development of individual character, especially the qualities of individual initiative, accountability, employee empowerment, resourcefulness, and self-reliance. He stated that a democratic-governance government requires individual liberty for its success and in order to be able to consolidate its success, it requires that free play of intellect which is independent of current prejudice, and examines everything by the light of reason and history, fearlessly defending unpopular opinions (Bryce, 1920).

The typical example of this unjust law (Tocqueville, 1835/2003) is the U.S. Supreme Court 1873 case in which the Court upheld the constitutionality of the refusal by the State of Illinois to license a woman to practice law, this being a true reflection the opinion prevailing among the public in the United Sates at the time on the position of women. As attested by Alexis de Tocqueville's (1835/2003) description, the Court said,

The civil law, as well as nature itself, has always recognized a wide difference in the respective spheres and destinies of man and woman. Man is, or should be, woman's protection and defender. The natural and proper timidity and delicacy, which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life. The constitution of the family organization, which founded in the divine ordinance as well as in the nature of things indicates the domestic spheres as that which properly belongs to the domain and functions of womanhood. The harmony not to say identity of interests and views, which belongs or should belong to the family institution is repugnant to the idea of a woman adopting a distinct and independent career from that of her husband.

Bryce (1920) continued to state that the demand for equality is built into the very concept of justice. The just society, then, must consider and protect the good life of each man, equally with that of any other, no matter how different these men may be, and so it must allow them equal consideration, equal opportunity, and equality before the law. The equal concern for the good lives of its members also requires society to treat them differently, for no matter how much one believes in a common human nature, individual needs and capacities differ, and what constitutes the good life for one individual may not do so for another. Chodak (1973), on the other hand, attested that the impressive advances made in biological sciences during the nineteenth century, coupled with Darwin's evolutionary theory, helped to pave the way for a rational connection and conception of human society as an entity that goes through a succession of developmental stages. Bryce, unlike Tocqueville, believed that a society infused with the spirit of liberty, democracy, justice, and the rule of law and order is not just a series of concepts or principles that may be secured by prescriptions in a constitution; rather, they are more a matter of the spirit of the heart, resting not only on the existence of the constitution that enshrines them but more by attitude, temperament, disposition, or a moral sense inculcated by habit and by tradition.

Eckstein discussed political stability and the congruence of authority patterns of structures and processes of governance. He rejected the notion of state-centered politics and wanted to find some way of transcending it. Eckstein attested that a government will be stable if its elected officials work hand in hand with her people. He contended that democracy is not anarchy; that it can only work best when there is balance of power between the officials and the people with no contradiction, such that these balances do not lead to undue strain and intolerance. Bryce (1920), on the other hand, argued that nationalism has played a fundamental role in the creation of modern democracies. He contended that the effect of democratization has been to replace monarchs with representative institutions capable of controlling and directing increasingly complex bureaucracies in such a way as to ensure officials the autonomy and stable guidelines they need. Bryce continued that when these institutions fail to function effectively, public administration can collapse and, in many cases, angered public officials seize power and establish bureaucratic polities marked by corruption and even greater inefficiency.

Classical theorists in democracy development emphasized governance and cultural evolution, its dynamics and the basis of society, the routine of democratic governance and many theories: Max Weber, Harry Eckstein, James Bryce, Alexis de Tocqueville, Richard, and Ogburn. As society develops, new theories begun to evolve and termed contemporary theories of democratic development. Contemporary theories were, of course, founded on the basis of classical theories. Some of the same subject matter is discussed and expounded on with new research material and other liberal concepts. In addition to what we already have discussed, theories such as cultural studies, feminist theory, globalization and multi-culturalism have been developed.

The economics of Poverty, Inequality Discrimination, Gender and Violence

The term "democracy" has become a rhetorical tag that promises social justice, fairness, fair hearing, speedy process of redress, freedom, human rights and so on. On the other hand, it epitomizes something to the contrary, for it allows people at the echelons of power and those close to them to enjoy tremendous edge over the masses that voted them into offices of responsibility through the use of state resources for selfish gains. War has caused many nations to lose their citizens through death and migration to other countries, hence the downfall in democratic development in these countries. Poverty, needs, wants, destitution, indigence, distress, illiteracy, instability, racism, gender roles, and the inability of governments to provide for their citizens due to corruption and other reasons, are all contributors to the downfall of democratic development. It affects not only the country in question but also others around it.

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Excerpted from Public Policy Implementation in a Democratic Governance Society: A Roadmap to Empowering Citizen Participation: An Empirical Studyby Darlington Mgbeke Copyright © 2009 by Dr. Darlington Mgbeke. Excerpted by permission.
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