@Miriam Jorgensen, Yes what you say here is exactly the type of situation that develop the type of human settlements that we see in my country today. One of which incubate poverty on the periphery and having the neo-liberal free-market property relations are also used with institutions defending these ownership patterns. The Policy solutions are created inside of the provided "institutional" guidelines and also the influence of the then (previous regime) and now democratic state legislation, that perpetuate and protect the situation. And yes, it can be even before I do deeper research in this, that the Institutions, policies, laws and especially the constitution direct the "naming and framing" and hence I say that the solutions are skewed by these "policy regimes and Path dependency" and hence the conversation and even the central role-players in policy and the policy making process is still the same as in the previous regime. Also the inclusive "public participation" really is a smoke screen and hence the government struggle to reverse apartheid type towns in my country and we see poverty incubated on the periphery, get a creation of a hyper consumer in these urban sprawl areas which are being still seen as migrant labor and hence I argue centrally to this can be the policy lock ins due to the institutions that was developed and the neo-liberal ideology in the property market and hence the type of ownership patterns.

Please if Possible provide me with your writings? Would be much appreciated, just to conceptualize and understand your thinking?

Got it online thank you so much. Will be in touch soon.

The answer really depends on the diversity and strength of other actors. In my book, democratization NGOs change the "path dependency" of governments. The text of Importing Democracy: The Role of NGOs in South Africa, Tajikistan and Argentina is available on Researchgate.

@Julie Fisher Melton, thank you for the source yes, and I can understand your argument from the title perhaps already, let me consult and will be in touch.

Regards,

Of course. Public policy is the product of the ruling government. Framing of a problem has occurred since the creation of a policy paper. If the government agrees on the issue, then a draft of policy material will be subsequently submitted to the legislature for discussion and agreement. At the time of drafting by the government this process of framing occurs. The political process that occurs in the legislature is usually not to dismantle the draft proposed by the government. The process in some cases is just a 'sound democratic session', justifying what has been circulated by the government.

Just adding to the discussion: As Robert Putnam and colleagues discuss in Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, institutions are self-reinforcing, so that they can be perpetuated for many years. He found the reasons for regional disparity in modern Italy could be explained by century-old institutions and habits. However, institutions are not unchangeable. They are, rather, like very heavy things, that move very slowly and with great effort.

In addition to this notion, and bringing the discussion to public policy, Joán Subirats argues that in the policy cycle, the enunciation of the policy problem is a crucial step that is usually neglected. He says that more errors were committed due to poorly defined problems, than because of bad solutions to well-defined ones. In this sense, considering the difficulty to change deep-rooted institutions, a special emphasis should rest on correctly defining policy problems in order to change those institutions - which, being left to work on auto-pilot, should reinforce themselves.

@Emanoel Querette, Yes this sounds exactly like my line of thinking and logic in the project I want to endeavor. Also yes Howlett et al. will agree when looking at institutions that are not "unchangeable" through the "stability" and minor changes that is applied to the policy, hence the perpetuation of the "policy regime".

Yes, I tend to agree with the findings of Subirats, as a study found even in USA, that "public opinion has Zero influence on public policy", and Yes, again I tend to agree (without proper authority) that the policy problem is crucial but most of the times neglected as you state, eg Our Housing policy states that it "aims to reverse the injustices of the past 'apartheid regime' and to build integrated sustainable human settlements" but really in the policy and looking at reality the integration that is said in the policy is just a smoke screen, this as the policies, and legislation that influence it most, almost "skew" the problem, as a deep rooted problem in my country is the Native land Act/ Groups areas Act, that dispossessed people of colour eg from particular areas of land, etc. Now the very same property clause, neo-liberal market property relations are the very same institutions and ideas, that perpetuate the status quo of apartheid so really...

So yes, that Book should be a very interesting read for the project and will be happy to read it. As regional disparities here today...is what Prof Mkhize state that the municipalities (government) provide services to those who materially look after the municipality, and hence why the ownership patterns and conditions regionally, and sectional differ very much. We literally have a "world class" neighborhood on one side and across the street have a downtrodden, marginalized, poorly serviced "township" or what people know as Ghettos. I think also the "Political Economy of public policy has great influence on the naming and framing in a policy"?