Books

Rethinking Policy Piloting

Cambridge University Press

Policy experimentation and piloting are widely endorsed as tools for evidence-based policymaking, yet the design features that shape whether and how pilots integrate into formal policy remain insufficiently understood. This book offers a systematic empirical analysis of thirteen national-level agricultural policy pilots in India over twenty-five years from 1990, coinciding with the country’s liberalization and decentralization reforms, with the aim of informing future piloting. The central question under examination is: how do design features of pilots influence their diffusion?

Drawing on policy design and experimentation literatures, four causal conditions influencing pilot diffusion are identified: (1) vision for scaling up, (2) governance arrangements and actor diversity, (3) alignment with existing policy goals, and (4) alignment with existing policy instruments, recognizing that changes in goals and instruments represent analytically distinct forms of policy change. The empirical analysis is based on documentary evidence and interviews with key informants involved in the design and implementation of these pilots across major agrarian states. Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) is applied to examine how these conditions combine across cases.

Three findings stand out. First, pilots are more likely to scale up and integrate into formal policy when they articulate a clear vision for diffusion, though high intentionality risks compromising their experimental logic. Second, non-governmental actor involvement in pilot governance creates greater scope for experimentation with new policy goals. Third, centralized government governance produces more measured experimentation, focused on policy means rather than ends. Together, these findings call for a rethinking of pilots and their contribution to policy design and formulation under risk and uncertainty. Pilots need not be radical to be valuable, success is not reducible to geographical scale-up, and the political nature of piloting explains why marginal change to existing policies are more commonly seen than transformation.

The analytical framework travels well beyond Indian agriculture and is applicable to policy formulation under uncertainty in sectors such as water, health, energy, housing, transport, and education, across federal governance systems globally.

This summary is freely available for use in your research, literature reviews, and teaching. Please cite as: Nair, S. (2021). Rethinking policy piloting: Insights from Indian agriculture. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108885867

Book review in Public Administration Review: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/puar.13625

Video summary: Author Speaks – Sreeja Nair

Blog post in Policy Studies Journal: https://psjblog.net/2024/07/10/rethinking-policy-piloting-managing-uncertainty-in-the-policy-process/