Solutions, exclusion and influence: Exploring power relations in the adoption of social protection policies in Kenya
Solutions, exclusion and influence: Exploring power relations in the adoption of social protection policies in Kenya
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解决方案、排斥和影响：探索肯尼亚社会保护政策采用中的权力关系
作者：
M. Ouma;J. Adesina
权力，以及如何在社会关系中行使权力，是解释政策变化的关键。然而，将其作为理解发展中国家社会保护政策采纳过程的一个解释性变量的分析仍未得到探索。利用肯尼亚的两个现金转移方案案例，我们考察了权力关系在采纳社会保护政策方面的动态。这篇文章有助于最近研究非洲国家通过进程的学术研究，但在离开时表明，行为者之间不对称的权力关系是/曾经是采用这些方案的核心。研究发现，在政策空间的社会关系中，代理人行使权力的方式有三种。第一，通过插入专家来控制政策议程；第二，通过去政治化过程将其他行为者排除在外；第三，通过社会学习影响国内行为者的偏好。
Power, and how it is exercised within social relations is pivotal in explaining policy change. However, its analysis as an explanatory variable in understanding social protection policy uptake processes in developing countries remains unexplored. Using two cases of cash transfer programmes in Kenya, we examine the dynamics of power relations in the uptake of social protection policies. This article contributes to recent scholarship examining the adoption process in African countries but in departure demonstrates that asymmetrical power relations between actors are/have been central to the uptake of the programmes. The study found that within social relations in the policy space, agents exercised power in three ways. First, by controlling the policy agenda by insertion of experts; second, by excluding other actors through a process of depoliticisation; and third, by influencing the preference of domestic actors through social learning.