Throughout the world, issues of governance and public administration remain the central focus for all. The main reason is that decisions made by the governing authorities have serious direct and indirect impact on the well-being of the larger percentage of citizens left out of the governance structure.
More often than not the decisions which best fit the interests of those in government is not in line with the wishes of the people. This means that the masses cannot allow the elites in authority to simply have their way as this would spell disaster for them.
This being the case, the role of the “linkage Institutions” becomes even more prominent. Linkage institutions are organizations which presumably link the people and the leadership especially in terms of properly articulating their views and pushing for action from within government circles (Linkage Institutions, n. d, and par4).
The most important examples of such institutions are the media, political parties, the election process and the different interest groups existing in a country. This paper looks at the effectiveness of such linkage institutions in improving the level of democracy, development of public policy and the scope of government.
Notably the above linkage institutions are developed with certain objectives in mind regarding the process of governance. The media is expected to inform the entire population of the occurrences within government circles. The process of delivering information is probably the most powerful among the processes undertaken by the other different linkage organizations.
The media is able to engage in an enquiry process on governance issues and report to the general public. This being the case, the media is able to shape the manner in which the public perceives or evaluates the process of governance.
Across the world, the media has been credited for enhancing the process of achievement of democracy (Sharma, 2009, par14). This is through engaging in a favorable reporting process which not only supports processes of consensus building but also scares away individuals who are against the achievement of democracy. Again the media offers a direct link for the people to the government.
People are able to express their views directly to the government concerning policies, achievement of democracy and public policy without the need to meet the governors. Finally, the media educates on a mass scale and is able to shape the opinion of the people concerning many matters of governance. These roles of the media greatly help in ensuring that governance corresponds to the expectations of the people (The Role of Media in Democracy: A Strategic Approach, 2010, par4-8).
Political parties on the other hand are more directly involved in the process of developing democracy and public policy. Political parties are largely seen as buses used by individuals to consolidate support from the public with the view of representing them in the government. Ideally, the political parties carry the aspirations of the people and are supposed to influence the governance towards making decisions which fulfill the aspirations of the people.
All over the world, democracy is the most cited reason for the formation of new parties. Again due to the popularity of the parties among the people, political parties are able to effectively bargain for the inclusion of their inputs in the process of establishing democracy, developing public policies as well as defining the scope of government.
The political parties represent movements with given agenda. Considering the popularity of the party strength mainly measured by the numbers who support it, the party is able to effectively engage the government in the process of governing. Indeed, parties which wield power are often voted out depending on their ability to meet the governance needs of the people. The incoming parties are normally expected to inject new governance as per their promise.
Interest groups are organizations which seek to influence the political class to make certain decisions relating to certain issues. They are mostly composed of experts in certain fields or simply people with certain concerns. More often than not, pressure groups are established around an emotive issue. Examples of areas with such lobby groups include abortion, environmental concerns and gender issues.
The intention of interest groups is to shape public policy to conform to their seemingly informed view on issues of interest. In many cases, they give valuable inputs to the development of sound policies which end up being beneficial to the entire society. Environmental laws based on the lobby groups’ inputs are known to be very effective in cutting the level of environmental degradation (Richardson, 2000, par3-6).
The election process is listed among the most important methods of influencing democracy and public policy. When a leader’s policies are ineffective, the people are at liberty to remove hi/her from office following an election. This gives immense incentive to subsequent government leaders to develop governance which is sensitive to the will of the people. This being the case, democracy can subsequently grow and public policies become more responsive to the needs of the people.
As can be seen from the above description, the power of the linking institutions is immense. Governments are not easily able to dismiss the views of the above interest people as this mostly renders them unpopular and hence unfit to run the government. However, there exist serious flaws among these institutions which are supposed to act as a link between the people and the government. The problems mainly originate from the vested interests harbored by those behind the organizations.
The media is accused of being biased in educating and shaping opinion among the people to fit to the aspirations of those in government. Ultimately this implies that in some cases, the genuine interest of the public is not fully incorporated in developing policies and democracy. This being the case the opinion of the people is traded in for the opinion of the few who are in power.
Political parties are also known world over for their ability to renege on the promises made concerning democracy and public policies. In many cases, concerns for the masses are used as the platform to ascend to power and then renege on the promises made. In addition interest groups also play partisan roles in development of their objective.
It is common to find an environmental based interest group advocating for the ban of a certain substance due its perceive effect on the environment while the main reason is that a competitor to the company in question is behind the action (Guerra, 2005, par7)).
As such it is true to claim that in many cases, the linkage institutions do not end up serving the interest of the general citizens due to the fact that they are prone to manipulation by those in government or those who are bound to gain from certain decisions.
Reference List
Guerra, A. (2005). Political Parties and the Quest for Effective Democratic Governance: The Case of Mexico. Web.
Linkage Institutions, n. d. reading list. Web.
Richardson, J., 2000. Government, Interest groups and policy change. Journal of political studies 48. Web.
Sharma, M., (2009). Media and governance. Web.
The Role of Media In Democracy: A Strategic Approach, (2010). Center For Democracy And Governance. Web.