LIST OF PANELS

General Objectives

To critically examine the cyclical trajectories of public policies in India and the broader Global South—specifically the movement from reform to reversal and subsequent reform—and to analyse how institutional capacity, legal–policy interactions, political interests, and socio-technical contexts shape these oscillations. The panel seeks to generate theoretical and empirical insights on the conditions under which policy reforms endure, destabilise, or re-emerge, thereby advancing understanding of policy praxis in environments characterised by uncertainty, rapid technological change, and competing governance priorities.

Research Questions

- How political, administrative, legal, and socio-economic factors drive the transition from policy reform to policy reversal in developing economies, particularly in India?
- How do courts, regulatory agencies, and bureaucratic actors influence the stability, reinterpretation, or abandonment of reforms during periods of contestation or uncertainty?
- In what ways do technological shifts, ecological pressures, and digital governance models trigger renewed policy reforms after reversals?
- How does policy reversal shape public trust, institutional coherence, and state capacity across sectors such as technology governance, environmental regulation, law enforcement, welfare delivery, and urban development?
- What comparative insights from the Global South illustrate similar reform–reversal–reform cycles, and how can these inform new theoretical models of policy resilience?
- Which methodologies/models — tension-generating matrix, Comparative Framework of Policy Design Theory, legal analysis, process tracing (Small-N/Middle-N Studies & Case Studies), policy mix, digital ethnography, or Lowi's Typology —are most effective in studying cyclical policy change in complex governance contexts?
 

Scientific Relevance

Studying the dynamics of reform–reversal–reform cycles offer a critical contribution to scholarship on public policy in the Global South. Existing theories of policy change often assume linear progress or incremental adaptation, but developing economies routinely experience abrupt suspensions, judicial or political pushbacks, and reconfigured reforms driven by electoral shifts, crises, or technological disruption. Analysing these cycles advances the understanding of policy resilience, institutional path dependence, and the interaction between law and policy under uncertainty—all central concerns of the IPPN Research Track.

Moreover, this theme foregrounds how developing economies serve not merely as empirical sites but as producers of theoretical innovations, demonstrating how governance systems cope with volatility, regulatory overload, and conflicting stakeholder interests. Insights from these policy cycles have global relevance: they illuminate how states can maintain coherence, rebuild capacity, and reconcile innovation with democratic accountability. The panel thus contributes substantively to debates on comparative governance, methodological innovation, and the future of policy praxis in rapidly evolving socio-technical environments.

Public policy scholarship often rests on the implicit assumption that once a policy is formulated, it will proceed smoothly to implementation. However, contemporary governance across the Global South reveals a markedly different reality. The growing frequency of policy reversals, oscillations, and recalibrations highlights the expanding complexity of policymaking environments shaped by technological disruption, political contestation, stakeholder resistance, and institutional capacity constraints. This panel invites papers that examine the cyclical nature of reform - reversal - reform, exploring how these trajectories reshape state capability, institutional coherence, and public trust.

Recent developments in India and comparable contexts illustrate this dynamic. The repeal of India’s Farm Laws after extensive mobilisation demonstrated how insufficient deliberation and weak legitimacy can disrupt major reforms (Singh, 2022). Delays in operationalising the Labour Codes underscore how administrative preparedness and political economy pressures determine implementation outcomes (Sood & Mehrotra, 2021). Similarly, the withdrawal of the Personal Data Protection Bill and its replacement with a new legislative framework reveal how evolving technological landscapes and multi-actor negotiations reshape policy design (Raman, 2023). Beyond India, Sri Lanka’s reversal of its organic farming mandate after agrarian collapse (Goh, 2022) and Indonesia’s revisions to its Job Creation Law following judicial review (Butt, 2021) highlight how Global South contexts generate powerful lessons on policy volatility.

This call aligns with the 2026 IPPN Conference theme, “Public Policy Praxis in the Global South: Building Coherence and Capacity for Future Challenges.” We seek contributions that interrogate why policies fail to sustain reform momentum, why reversals occur, and how redesigned reforms emerge. Papers may engage with questions of institutional design, administrative capacity, legal–policy interactions, political incentives, public participation, and comparative governance.

We particularly encourage submissions addressing:

- How do factors drive transitions from policy reform to reversal in developing economies?
- How do courts, regulatory actors, and bureaucracies mediate these cycles?
- How do technological, ecological, and socio-economic pressures trigger reform reinvention?
- What comparative insights on reform stability can be drawn from across the Global South?
- Which methodological innovations help capture cyclical policy change?
 

This panel aims to contribute to the scientific understanding of policy resilience, nonlinear policy trajectories, and institutional adaptability, reinforcing the Global South as a producer—not just a recipient—of theoretical innovation (Roy, 2020). We welcome empirical studies, theoretical papers, mixed-methods research, and comparative analyses that illuminate the complex political and administrative conditions under which policy reforms endure, falter, or re-emerge.

References

Butt, S. (2021). Judicial review and the Omnibus Law in Indonesia. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 52(3), 389–407.

Goh, E. (2022). Agrarian crisis and policy reversals in Sri Lanka. Third World Quarterly, 43(10), 2451–2468.

Raman, A. (2023). India’s data governance trajectory: Lessons from the PDP Bill withdrawal. Indian Journal of Public Administration, 69(1), 55–72.

Roy, A. (2020). Governance innovation in the Global South. Governance, 33(4), 923–939.

Singh, S. (2022). Understanding the repeal of India’s farm laws. Economic & Political Weekly, 57(4), 34–40.

Sood, A., & Mehrotra, S. (2021). Labour Codes and the future of work in India. ILO Working Paper.