So, how does a problem become part of the policy agenda?
There are different levels of the agenda, and many problems are lying around.
These problems form the Agenda Universe. However, the system, e.g., government
at a particular point in time, will accommodate or likely to accept a set of
problems to address; these problems become part of the Systemic Agenda. The
goal of a group is to make a systemic agenda to the Institutional agenda, and
other opposing groups will try to block the process of a problem becoming
institutional agenda. Institutional agenda may or may not become a decision
agenda depending upon the power structure and will of different groups. This is
how a problem becomes part of a policy agenda.
Source:
http://www.tombirkland.com/research
How did the problem of land become part of the policy agenda after Independence in India?
Land policy in India has been an essential topic of
government policy discussions since Independence. The land was always an
integral part of Indian culture and society. Being an agrarian society, it is a
symbol of identity and social status. However, from the medieval era to
colonial rule, rulers always exploited land as a revenue source and did not
prioritize rights and welfare. So, after Independence, the newly elected
government took this issue forward and formulated land policy based on the idea
of reform and redistribution. How, then, did this issue become a national
government priority, and how did it provoke a significant policy response? To
answer these questions, we divide the events that led to policy agenda setting
into Kingdon's three streams (problem, politics, and policy) and analyze the
role of policy entrepreneurs and other influences.
Problem Stream
A goal of economic development and social justice,
combined with the peculiarities of Indian agriculture, led the government to
undertake a comprehensive land reforms program.
Immediately after Independence, a committee, under the
Chairmanship of the late Shri J. C. Kumarappa (a senior Congress leader), was
appointed to investigate the problem of land. However, this report served as a
focusing event, emphasizing the need to formulate a drastic land reform policy
to address the agrarian crisis.
Another focusing event that did influence the land reform
policy in some places was the Bhoodaan Movement in 1951, led by Vinoba Bhave.
An attempt was made to convince wealthy landowners to give away a portion of
their property to landless people. The central and certain state governments supported
the movement; thus, gaining elite support.
In India, the Directive Principles of State Policy of the
constitution play a vital role in the problem identification process. Article
39 of the Constitution of India deals with the redistribution of land and land
reform.
Taken together, these two events defined the lack of a
robust land policy for social welfare as a significant issue (in the problem
stream) that needed to be addressed by the government.
Politics Stream
In the political stream, the congress party, being a
principal architect of India's Independence and the dominant party in electoral
politics, took a socialist approach to address the problems of the newly born
nation. In a socialist model, land, as a means of production bound to be distributed
equitably.
The Congress party promised 'land to the tiller' even
before the Independence. The political changes happened after the Independence,
thus bringing in a new government committed to the nation's welfare and
development.
Policy Stream
In the policy stream in land reforms, a series of
substantive developments enabled the program to be introduced and adopted. The
Permanent Settlement of 1793 created a class of superior proprietors, and they
violated the unwritten, age-old rights of tenants in their land. Historically,
intermediaries were created to administer land revenue and maintain political
control by successive rulers, but their numbers continued to expand. The large
patches of land held by them were left to tenants at exorbitantly high rents.
Tenant cultivators were thus disincentives to develop their land, resulting in
lower production. Therefore, the Colonial Government, in its interest to manage
the country efficiently, did not alter the land-revenue system in any
substantial way but promoted the class of non-cultivating intermediaries. In
short, the inequality created by the Zamindari and Ryotwari systems and the
problems of tenancy rights and land records were crucial elements in the policy
stream that enabled the development of a viable policy option that addressed
many shortcomings that had plagued the earlier land policy structure.
Policy Entrepreneurs
The main problem faced by the government when formulating
the land reforms was that the large percentage of parliamentarians and administrative
officers belonged to the dominant feudal families. So, the land reforms were
against their interest. However, the policy entrepreneurs, namely prime
minister Nehru, Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad, J.C Kumarappa, and others,
played their part in bringing the problem of land into the policy agenda. It
was the Charisma and popularity of Nehru that made him a successful policy
entrepreneur. The ideas of Gandhi about the rural economy and agrarian
structure influenced the policy path through Vinoba Bhave, a true disciple of
him.
Each of these individuals played a key role at different
stages of the process of placing land reforms on the government's policy agenda
and assuring its adoption. These actors ensured that the conflict of interest
between different elite groups did not prohibit social welfare by shifting the 'mobilisation
of bias' towards the land policy issue.
Other Factors
Land reform has been seen as a powerful tool of asset
redistribution policy for poverty alleviation, enhancing production efficiency
through tenant efficiency and small-farm efficiency, agricultural growth, and
agricultural capital formation and food security. The land was seen as a key to
development. Bringing more land under cultivation, managing wastelands was also
critical to the problem of land that led to its acceptance in the policy
agenda. As land is a state subject, various local issues played a part in local
agenda-setting in different states.
In sum, Kingdon's three-stream model is constructive in
analyzing the emergence and adoption of land reforms as an essential policy
agenda in independent India.
