Written after the Philippine elections, I was not quite sure where we were headed. I am well aware of my tone when I wrote this.

 Policy Adoption & Change In the field of communication, diffusion of innovation theory is a communication process, which pertains to innovations spread through a communication channel – normally through the use of mass media or in current parlance, social networks. If the receiver(s) failed to come to know about the innovation, diffusion cannot happen. What further affirms the diffusion process is the interpersonal communication that normally becomes the deciding factor whether to adopt the innovation. This is quite dependent on the discussions with those who have come to know about the innovation beforehand. Quite simply, diffusion of innovation studies the adoption of something new – an idea, a practice or a project, yet it also studies the resistance to innovation. With the above communication definition of diffusion of innovation, Berry and Berry discusses how diffusion of innovation models are seen in policy adoption and how Equation 3 explains the likelihood of a state adopting a policy innovation. Mintrom defines policy innovation as a policy that is new to the state adopting it. Who are the drivers of the policy change? Are the factors that apply in communication the same as the factors in policy change? This paper attempts to identify common factors that characterises the diffusion of innovation framework in the different journals on Policy Adoption and Change. These ranges from policy entrepreneurs and their influence on policies on education reform, policies on eGovernment, and development work via development entrepreneurs – share these common factors: (1) the characteristics of the innovation itself, (2) the characteristics of the individual or organization making the adoption decision, and (3) the social system in which the adoption occurs (Damanpour and Schneider 2009; Danziger et al. 1982; Moon and Norris 2005; Weare, Musso, and Hale 1999). In Mintrom’s research, he studied the policy innovation of school choice – an education reform policy that would bring a dynamic change on the public school system. School choice means that families have the liberty to choose the school their children can go to. Policy proponents see this as having the schools improve on their programmes to fit with the students’ needs. This way, Mintrom explains, school administrators are forced to focus more on the students than procedural rules than educational bureaucracies. There were 26 states adopted school choice, thanks to the policy entrepreneurs who sold the policy as an innovation. States have looked across state lines before deciding whether to adopt or reject the policy. Kyu-Nahm’s research focused on the eGovernment service as a policy innovation. This would bring government services through the use of technology with a wide range of benefits. Whilst in the early stages, e-government services is seen as a policy innovation but has a weak diffusion mainly due to the policy needing an external technological resources and that’s what somehow stalled the policy. Yet when other municipalities have become adopting it, they have welcomed the deliberations in setting up e-government services and its adoption into the present system. Kyu-Nahm sees the institutional motivation as the main reason whether the policy innovation is adaptable, but external influence has been seen more as the influence than internal factors within the organisation. Faustino and Fabella looked into the development work and the change agents that have a direct hand in institutional change – the development entrepreneurs. Faustino sees them as those who have the right mix of power and righteousness who have the influence to facilitate technical assistance to government counterparts (Faustino & Fabella, 2011). The development entrepreneur should have the capacity to analyse technical, political economy and political action; responsible for bringing about development outcomes; and various network of support. They are those who pursue the greater social good through institutional change (Faustino & Fabella, 2011). The journals on policy adoption and change require a policy innovation that has distinct characteristics that can possibly be game-changers in the political landscape. Its adoption though, can be quite challenging, as there must be an influential change agent that believe in the policy innovation. They are those who are willing to adopt new ideas – policy innovations – and thus affect the political landscape. In the communication definition of the diffusion of innovation theory, they are the social networks (or the erstwhile mass media and mass communication). The policy entrepreneurs and in Faustino and Fabella’s study, the development entrepreneurs are instrumental in bringing the policy innovation to the forefront. They have the network of individuals and organisations in the government, non-government organisations, interest groups and other political actors. But with all the influences the policy entrepreneur or the development entrepreneur will all be for naught if the political system or society decides to reject the policy innovation. Perhaps the social system was not ready to change. Lastly, a look into the definitions under the Encyclopaedia of Communication Theory:Diffusion is the process by which an innovation makes its way over time to members of a social system. An innovation is the introduction of something new—a project, practice, or idea. The innovation–decision process is the process of progression an individual goes through from first encountering an innovation to its adoption. Innovativeness is a measure of early adoption; individuals are considered innovative and potential change agents if they are more willing to adopt new ideas than other members of a system and likely to do so earlier than others. Finally, the rate of adoption of an innovation is the relative speed with which an innovation is adopted. erikagaralde | 18 March 2016 “...Public bureaucracy is not designed to be effective1”| That is, according to Moe. Bureaucracy always had a negative connotation. But what people fail to understand is bureaucracy happens after policies have been enacted or becomes law. What about the law’s implementation? With the recent elections the country will witness the changing of the guard (or cabinet secretaries) for each department. Here comes bureaucracy, the oft hated, but rarely understood process, which the country’s new leader, President-elect Rodrigo Duterte is piecing together to replace the outgoing administration’s cabinet. However, this is not an easy task considering there are those who have expressed strongly against a certain choice or other choices have respectfully declined the position being offered  – for whatever reason. Everyone has a stake in the President-elect’s choice, obviously. Yet the strongest opinions are coming from interest groups, which is not a surprise. According to Moe, the masses are more concerned with their candidate’s party, image or stands on policy. During the height of the campaign period, the masses were indeed more concerned with the image of the candidate – Duterte offered and promised change. We’ve seen the heated arguments on the broadcast networks as well as the scathing, friendship-ending paroxysms on social media. The people and the interest groups they belong to are understandably protective of the image of their candidates. But rarely did we see any candidate that has laid down the nitty-gritty of the of his stance on “non-controversial” issues such as how the Laguna Lake policy has been grossly violated by having more than 10% fish pens in the lake by none other than the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), just by doing an eyeball estimate on the South Luzon Expressway’s SkyWay or even simply by doing an online search on Google Earth. We’ll now see how these interest groups will play their part with the incoming administration.  The interest groups, whether they are for or against the incoming administration, will be on guard as to how President-elect Duterte will make good on his promises or not. According to Moe, bureaucracies are defined by the political situation that determines their structural design, which could be that structure is invaluable to interest groups, as they have all the resources to influence the multitude to see the issues on their side. Hence, as Moe stated, structural politics is interest group politics. An example of which was how interest groups staunchly guarded their candidates in the recent elections. Perhaps the unfortunate negative connotation bureaucracy has stemmed from Max Weber: bureaucracy is a structure of domination. Or more precisely, bureaucratic administration means fundamentally domination through knowledge (Weber, 1922). His concept of bureaucracy is found in his book Economy & Society. He has listed six features2 that characterise bureaucracy: (1) it covers a fixed area of activity, which is governed by rules; (2) it is organised as a hierarchy; (3) action that is undertaken is based on written documents (preserved as files); (4) expert training is needed, especially for some; (5) officials devote their full activity to their work; and (6) the management of the office follows general rules which can be learned. Despite having termed as such, bureaucracy works quite efficiently as what Weber has listed above: clearly defined rational-legal decision-making rules3 (Grimsley, n.d.), hierarchy, expertise and specialisation, and standard operating procedures. Weber also included the theory of bureaucratic management, which is, theoretically, an organisation run by a group of people organised in a hierarchical structure governed by rational-legal decision-making rules or each department’s or organisation’s implementing rules and regulations (IRR). All of which are present in all our branches of government – be it in the legislative, the judiciary and especially those in the executive branches of the government. This kind of structure works, be it in the government or the private sector, it works. Unfortunately some of the rational-legal decision-making rules can hinder government services. The rules are in place for a reason. It is only up to the department head to simplify these rules. Simplifying not circumventing. A good example of simplifying these rules is through e-government services. More and more agencies have been shifting their services into e-government services – government services that can be transacted online. It has become a welcome respite from the hours of waiting for a particular service to be delivered. Another is by having other satellite offices to transact these services – as evidenced by the overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in obtaining of the overseas employment certificate (OEC) prior to their departure. What was once a whole day affair at the central office in Ortigas was cut down to a few minutes. The same is true with the renewal of passports, National Statistics Office (NSO) legal documents and divers licences. What is a welcoming change to the incoming Duterte administration is the potential establishment of a new department in the executive branch that solely caters to the overseas Filipino workers. This means that OFWs will no longer be under the wings of two departments – the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). This might mean that we are openly accepting that the country cannot provide jobs to the masses hence the promotion and endorsement of overseas employment. This has been the previous administrations stance why it has not become a separate administrative entity. Perhaps there are plans that have not been made public by the incoming administration. Similarly, in 1986 saw the establishment of a new department – the Department of Agrarian Reform, backed by the redistributive policy in the reformation and reallocation of land. The department “undertakes land tenure improvement, development of program beneficiaries, and agrarian justice4”. Incoming President Duterte has promised change and he has floated one of the changes is the country’s system of government from unitary to federalism. Quite expectedly, the country is torn between for or against this form of government. It’s high time that the power to govern should be shared between the national and the provincial governments. For over 70 years, right after the Second World War, Imperial Manila has endlessly enjoyed being the centre of power – from politics, culture, economic, entertainment – to name a few. The country “has become over-developed center and a weak underdeveloped periphery5”. The National Capital Region (NCR) took precedence over other regions when it comes to infrastructure. Numbers and other statistics are not even needed, as Manila-centric development is highly visible. Federalism should equalise the development of other regions. The question is, what kind of federalism will be adopted – American or European? European Federalism tempers the power from the central government by having the powers distributed at several levels – regional, national and supranational. On the other hand, American Federalism believes in a stronger central government, having a perception of a unitary government. Whatever the President-elect pushes for, it is, afterall for the benefit of the Filipinos and hopefully a change in development for the regions. With all of what was discussed, is bureaucracy to blame for all the ills and the hindrances that we as a people faced in the previous administrations? Moe believes that in a democratic society, bureaucracy is not a problem. Instead we should focus on reforming political institutions and perhaps Federalism can actually see us through those reforms. erikagaralde | 28 May 2016 References:1 Moe, Terry. 1989. The Politics of Bureaucratic Structure. In Can the Government Govern? Eds, Chubb, J & Peterson, PE. Washington, DC. Brookings. pp 267 – 329. 2 Swedberg, R & Agevall, O. (2005). Max Weber Dictionary: Key Words and Central Concepts. 2005. Stanford University Press. Standford, California, USA. 3 Grimsley, Shawn, (n.d.). Lesson transcript. Bureaucratic Management Theory: Definitions and Examples. Bureaucratic Management Theory at study.com accessed 26 May 2016 4 DAR website accessed 27 May 2016 (Link not working as of 12 June 2017) 5 Carvajal, O. 2016. Carvajal: Federalism. Sunstar Cebu. Accessed online. 26 May 2016. Sunstar Cebu Opinions Drought and Dry Spell Causing Huge Farm Losses in the Countryside Global and local news report on the severity of the effects of El Niño at an alarming rate – temperatures rose, deaths from heatstroke, and shrinking food harvests. One need not look at the current temperature to know how bad El Niño is – oppressive humidity, exhaustive heat – wouldn’t those be indicators enough? What is more alarming is there might not be enough harvests to feed 100M population, and the countries we’ll be importing from would have been experiencing El Niño as well. What if India would have had a repeat of 2008 wherein India has banned rice exports? Will we be faced with the exorbitant prices of our staples or simply rely on Chinese “food” imports? Among all the problems that the country is facing, the most salient problem that we need to act on quickly is not being able to feed 100M people due to the current drought and dry spell, which is causing huge farm losses in the countryside. As mentioned earlier, the countries that could potentially import from are also facing the same drought and dry spell. Because of the scarcity of food staples, prices go up and not everyone can afford it. #BigasHindiBala (Rice instead of bullets)To add to the burgeoning problem of drought and dry spell, in recent events, on 1 April, the world witnessed the violent dispersal of hungry farmers and Indigenous Peoples (IPs) in Kidapawan where 3 people have reportedly died. This happened in the midst of the campaign period, which was used as ammunition to taint the incumbent administration’s candidate against everybody else. Unfortunately, the plight of the farmers was politicised. They became fodder for candidates. Fortunately, there are farmer groups and other coalitions that have made a tough stance on how Kidapawan was handled. The Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (Farmer-Scientist Partnership for Development) also known as MASIPAG and the Ecumenical Bishops Forum have separately released statements condemning the violent dispersal. The Cyclical El Niño and La Niña According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the El Niño is a term for the warming phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Temperatures rise between 1–3°F. The ENSO is a cycle and is not caused by climate change. The science community has reiterated that this is cyclical and it occurs naturally every 3 to 7 years. But scientists also believe that climate change might be the reason why the El Niño has become more intense in the latter years. The current El Niño started as early as March 2015 in Asia and the Pacific but it has only been significantly felt in July. According to the forecast of Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, El Niño will continue until mid 2016. The weather can then revert to normal (termed neutral by meteorologists) or we might see the emergence of La Niña. In the Philippines, El Niño affects 42 per cent of the country, most of which is in Mindanao. Government estimates, as of 25 April 2016, there are 3.5 million people affected by the El Niño. As of January 2016, there are 181,700 farmers and 224,800 hectares of agricultural land have been affected. Because of El Niño, there is a severe possibility of food insecurity in the country. How Can We All Help?El Niño is cyclical and should not even be a problem should proper measures have been applied. A scientist disclosed that there have already been funds allotted for the impending drought as subsidy to those affected by the drought and dry spell – even before the Kidapawan incident. The goal is simple – to have an ample supply of rice for the whole population. Farmers should have been given enough resources and training what to do during the El Niño cycle. Other farmers have introduced other crops while waiting for the ample time to farm. Farmer groups such as the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) established in 1956, have been active in training and development. MASIPAG has continued to lend its support in development, community empowerment, and people’s control over agricultural biodiversity as a contribution in the over-all effort of improving the quality of life of small farmers. Other local and regional farmer groups have shared their expertise in dealing with the El Niño and other means of sustainable development and farming. Other options that have been floated were to import now before the prices go up. Currently, authorities from the National Food Authority have disclosed that there are ample stocks for 87 days and 90 days. Short for criticising the incumbent and the previous governments, there should have been policies that have been in place to counter the effects of El Niño. Online searches have come up with nothing, save for news reports about how many farms have been destroyed by the phenomenon. Instead, let us look into the Advocacy Coalitions Framework (ACF), which has been developed by Paul Sabatier and Hank Jenkins-Smith in 1988 and revised by Sabatier and Jenkins (1999), Sabatier and Weible (2007). Perhaps the ACF can help us in solving the current lack of necessary policies that would tackle the phenomenon. Based on ACF’s five foundational premises (Sabatier & Jenkins-Smith, 1999): first, scientific and technical information are given a central role in the policy process. Second, a time perspective of 10 years or more is required to understand policy change.  Third, the policy subsystem (defined by policy topic, geographic scope, and influencing actors) is the primary unit of analysis.  Fourth, the set of policy subsystem actors is expanded beyond the traditional members of the iron triangle to include officials from all levels of government, consultants, scientists, and members of the media.  Fifth, policies and programs can be viewed as translations of beliefs (Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith 1999). Given these premises we already have a heady amalgam of data and other resources to sort our recurring problems with drought and dry spell. There is not one agency that will be solely responsible in handling this pressing cyclical issue on El Niño. It should be collaboration with other agencies – the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Agriculture (DA), NFA, advocacy and interest groups, the legislature as well as the private sector. As we have learnt in class that the idea behind ACF is the more open the political system, the more chances of getting the policies vetoed. Hence coalitions, groups and other institutions have more chances of compromise and minimal devil shift. The reason why there might be a heavy ACF interaction because the country has just recently experienced an emotional high – President-elect Duterte winning. All the interest groups are now quite open to the suggestions to support the change/s the incoming administration has prioritised. Hence looking into the policies that concern the cyclical ENOS should be of everyone’s prime concern. erikagaralde | 28 May 2016 References:1 OCHA website. What is El Niño? accessed 27 May 2016 (Dead link as of 12 June 2017)2 Masipag website Accessed 27 May 2016.3 Look: Double El Niño Wrecks Farms in Saranggani and Maguindanao. 25 May 2016. accessed 27 May 2016