Citzen Action and National Policy Reform

Which factors help to make myriad efforts by diverse actors add up to reform? What is needed to overcome setbacks, and to consolidate the smaller victories? Aid agencies have invested heavily in supporting civil society organizations as change agents which configure power relations and transform governance structures. In the rush to go global or stay local, however, the national policy sphere was recently neglected. Today, there is growing recognition of the key role of champions of...
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Which factors help to make myriad efforts by diverse actors add up to reform? What is needed to overcome setbacks, and to consolidate the smaller victories? Aid agencies have invested heavily in supporting civil society organizations as change agents which configure power relations and transform governance structures. In the rush to go global or stay local, however, the national policy sphere was recently neglected. Today, there is growing recognition of the key role of champions of change inside national governments, and the potential of their engagement with citizen activists outside. Citizen Action and National Policy Reform brings together eight studies of successful cases of citizen activism in South Africa, Morocco, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Turkey, India and the Philippines. Drawing on influential social science theory about how political and social change occurs, the authors bring new empirical insights to bear on it, both challenging and enriching current understanding.