Policy changes can have a profound impact on community decisions about an issue well into the future. It’s not surprising that people who want to make a difference often try to change policies. However, changing policies is difficult and time consuming. It requires patience, sensitivity and hard work. But it is important to try – not only because of the benefits that are likely to follow, but because of the implications for the direction of a community as a whole if problems continue to be ignored or swept under the rug.
People suggest a wide variety of policy changes in their open-ended responses to our questions. They include changes related to health, education, housing, immigration and economic reform. The emphasis on economic reform is particularly strong in the middle-income countries where we conducted the survey. Some respondents mention only one or two specific policies; others list several, like the American man who suggests gun reform, criminal justice reform, an end to tax deductions for foreign corporations, minimum capital requirements in financial firms that force them to hold more equity and reduce their reliance on debt as a source of financing stock purchases, and other measures to restrain asset price inflation.
Grass-roots community initiatives, organizations that work with the issue in question, and concerned professional groups can all be helpful agents for policy change. They often have credibility and the technical knowledge of an issue (statistics, study results, an understanding of root causes) and a personal, in-depth understanding of its human consequences that comes from working with the people affected by it. They also can be good sources of information about the process and timing of policy change.