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This blog is published by the Communication for Governance & Accountability Program (CommGAP) headed by Sina Odugbemi.
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We welcome our newest guest blogger, Taeku Lee, Associate Professor of Political Science and Visiting Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. Learn More >>
Watch interviews with experts conducted last year during a CommGAP workshop on Governance Reform under Real-World Conditions, and a BBC World World Debate on good governance and poverty. Learn More>>
Tom Jacobson, Professor and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the School of Communications and Theater, Temple University. Learn More>>
Caroline Jaine, Albany Associates. Learn More>>
Taeku Lee, Associate Professor of Political Science and Visiting Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley.
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People, Spaces, Deliberation - Exploring the interactions among public opinion, governance, and the public sphere Copyright © The World Bank Group - All Rights Reserved Home | Contact | Legal | Disclaimer | Log-in |
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Almost everywhere, political leaders don't work with the strange animal known as 'the Public'. They work with 'key stakeholders' when they have to. And they prefer to decide a policy then 'consult' key stakeholders. Then they get on with the business of governing. There are at least three reasons for this. First, in representative democracies, many leaders genuinely believe that they were elected to take all the decisions, that 'the Public' only have a role when they vote during periodic elections. Second, authoritarian rule is still the rule rather than the exception in our world, even where countries have formal democracies. 
In the developed world, radio is a more or less dying medium. In the age of iPods, who needs to switch on a radio to listen to music? Much less to listen to political talk, which you get anywhere from your local newspaper (preferably online) to cable television (also online, of course). Nevertheless, radio has a curious position in the political realm, in particular in developing countries, and to some extent also in the Western world..jpg)
Anne-Katrin
Most editorial cartoons make a forceful point in a playful manner. I think the artful combination of wit and cheeky criticism explains their popular appeal and potential effectiveness, but also hints at a possible limitation. Historical studies of political cartoons (see 
Mohandas Gandhi once declared, in his inimicably insightful and economical manner that “those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.” The same could be said, in obverse, of politics vis-à-vis religion. We often bemoan the paucity of concrete policy debates in an election or lampoon incumbent presidents for declaring a “mission accomplished” well ahead of its due. Yet when we do so we ignore, at our peril, the reality that politics is quite often a faith-based quest, not an evidence-based venture.
Having spent a considerable part of my professional and academic life thinking and writing about the public sphere, it still amazes me how nebulous this concept is, and how difficult it is to be clear about what we mean when we talk about "the public sphere." Academics write multi-volume books on this issue, and justifiably so: The public sphere is a constitutive element of democracy. Without it, citizens would not have a space in which to develop and articulate "public will," and no means to influence political decision making. 
Colleagues have previously argued on this blog that public opinion is a critical force in conflict transformation and peace building. It makes intuitive sense that serious assessment of the viability of peace processes requires taking stock of various societal forces -- not just the political will of elites but also the public will comprised of the preferences of various stakeholder groups.
Every morning last week I stumbled through the public foyer in the United Nations Headquarters on my way to work (which was speaking to spokespeople – a tall order). It wasn’t until Friday that I stopped to take a look at the exhibition that I had largely rushed by, running a slalom course through visiting tourists all week. 
Roumeen Islam is manager of the World Bank Institute's Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Division. She is an economist by training and, I might add, by conviction. But to anybody who cares seriously about the role of the mass media in development, Roumeen is much admired in a particular capacity: as someone who has made a sterling contribution to how the media is viewed within international development. Although media systems and their impact on development are not the only things that have preoccupied her - right now she is leading major work on international trade indicators, amongst others - she has done as much as anybody I know to put an institutional view of the media on the development agenda. 
I was delighted, yesterday to stumble across 
The number of governance reform processes in which communication plays a role appears to be vast. Which of these are of vital importance? How exactly can communication help? And what does research have to tell us? A new volume of edited work offers one set of answers to such questions. 
New policy and practice fields need intellectual energy; otherwise they don’t go anywhere quickly. Those promoting the new fields need to be producing justificatory essays, applied research, good practice manuals, policy briefs, evaluations, articles in refereed journals...and blogs too! They should be bombarding policy makers with all kinds of output of good quality; and they should be organizing the field as a serious discipline. I am happy to see that the role of the media in development is attracting more intellectual energy. 
I have been forced to think about the role of the news media in the governance reform agenda a lot in the last few weeks. First, CommGAP had 
