RETHINKING POLICY RESEARCH SPHERE: THE STUDY OF CITIZENS’ PARTICIPATION IN THE POLICY-MAKING PROCESS

Abstract

One major identifiable lacuna with the public policy-making process particularly, in developing nations, has been linked to the inability of the policy-making elites to establish the necessary frameworks capable of engaging the citizens in the making of policies which are also meant for the well-being of citizens. To this end, policies which ought to have the citizens as their primary focus, most times end up being at variance with the needs and the expectations of the citizens and thereby, creating vacuums for public outcry and discontentment. The absence of a platform for citizens’ engagement has in many ways, rendered the relevance of policy research meaningless. This paper is literature-based and therefore, attempts to interrogate the place of policy research as a veritable tool in enhancing citizens’ participation and engagement towards evolving citizen-focused policy-making processes with the overall objective of promoting good governance, accountability and participatory democratic culture in the conduct and the affairs of states in the much of developing nations.

KEYWORDS: Policy Research; Citizens’ Participation; Public Policy; Political Culture; Value-System.