Introduction

Abstract

The policy agenda represents the set of problems facing the society and is a product of strategic choices and preferences of a variety of political actors including elected politicians, political parties, the public, and the media. Societal problems are often complex and require immediate attention. However, human beings and the institutions they inhabit have limited attention spans, as a result of which many of the important policy problems facing the society fail to get onto the political agenda, even if they succeed, they seldom receive enough attention to trigger policy change. In this book, we attempt to explore the dynamics of the policymaking process in a system with an additional layer of complication, political instability that arose from weak political institutionalization, ideological fragmentation, and the failure to solidify democratic gains. This chapter introduces our motivation to undertake this study and our contribution to the study of comparative public policy.