A cynic’s perspective on robust policy design
The first law of policy realism
A policy that relies on the Indian citizen to act in selfless public interest will not work. In fact, a policy that expects an Indian citizen to act in anything but self-interest and relative gain will not work.
The second law of policy realism
A policy that expects Indian citizens to adhere to a process—any process—will not work as intended, because people will ignore, work around or actively undermine the process.
Implications of the above:
1. Policies must be designed to appeal to self-interest and maximise relative gains (in other words, the citizen must feel s/he will get more out of it compared to others).
2. Policy design must incorporate processes that are consistent with people’s mindsets and are resistant to being undermined.
The alternative to Implication #2 – if the policy goes against existing mindsets – it must be backed up with adequate enforcement, incentives for compliance and penalties for non-compliance, all aligned to a person’s self-interest.
Classic. Like Cults & Parties, Niti-mandala, Bigotry (storify). Write a book.
These laws are universally true for all shortage economies.