Decolonizing Policy Studies: How the 2025 Handbook of Public Policy in the

Introduction: Why a Handbook by the Global South Matters

For decades, the study of public policy has been shaped overwhelmingly by scholars based in North America and Western Europe. Textbooks, theoretical frameworks, and case studies used in universities from Nairobi to Jakarta routinely draw on experiences from Washington, London, or Paris, while the policy realities of post-colonial states, fragile democracies, and hybrid regimes are treated as anomalies or underdeveloped versions of the Western norm. This imbalance is not merely an academic curiosity—it has real-world consequences. International development organizations, donors, and even domestic reformers often apply standardized prescriptions that ignore local political economies, informal power structures, and colonial legacies.

The 2025 Routledge Handbook of Public Policy in the Global South, edited by Gedion Onyango and Ishtiaq Jamil, marks a decisive break from this tradition. Published by Taylor & Francis (Routledge), a leading academic publisher with global distribution, the handbook is the first major reference work of its kind to be authored exclusively by scholars based in the Global South. It brings together over thirty chapters that span democracies, military regimes, and hybrid political systems, offering readers authentic, ground-level perspectives on how policy is actually made, implemented, and contested in contexts that mainstream literature has long overlooked.

This is not simply another edited volume. It is a strategic intervention in the broader effort to decolonize policy studies. By centering the voices of those who live and work within these systems, the handbook challenges the implicit assumption that knowledge about governance flows from North to South. Instead, it demonstrates that the Global South is a rich source of theoretical innovation, comparative insight, and practical wisdom. This article unpacks why this volume represents a paradigm shift, examines its core contributions, and explores what it means for future research, teaching, and development practice.

[IMAGE: A world map with the Global South countries highlighted, with small icons of books sprouting from those regions.]

Core Axis: Indigenous Knowledge Meets Comparative Governance

The handbook’s hidden economic logic lies in the unique insight that local scholars bring to the study of public policy. Western frameworks often treat informal institutions—such as patronage networks, ethnic bargaining, and customary justice systems—as deviations from ideal-typical bureaucratic models. But in many Global South contexts, these informal structures are not bugs; they are features of how governance actually functions. A scholar based in Accra or Dhaka understands, often from lived experience, how a minister’s kinship obligations shape budget allocations, or why a bureaucratic rule might be systematically circumvented to maintain political stability. The handbook captures this tacit knowledge and translates it into rigorous analytical frameworks.

By covering political systems as diverse as Ghana’s stable democracy, Bangladesh’s parliamentary hybridity, and Egypt’s military-led administration, the volume reveals a fundamental truth: one-size-fits-all policy prescriptions fail because governance contexts are radically different. The comparative case studies allow readers to identify both patterns and outliers. For instance, several chapters examine how colonial legal inheritances continue to structure land reform, fiscal policy, and social service delivery across the continent. Others explore the role of traditional councils in mediating disputes over natural resources—a phenomenon virtually absent from mainstream policy textbooks.

This axis directly challenges the assumption that policy transfer from the North to the South is desirable or effective. The handbook documents numerous instances where imported models—such as results-based budgeting or participatory governance—were either rejected, adapted beyond recognition, or implemented in name only while old practices persisted. Instead, the contributors argue for context-sensitive policy design that begins with an understanding of local political settlements, historical trajectories, and informal power dynamics. This is not an argument against learning from elsewhere, but against the hubris that assumes universal applicability.

[IMAGE: A diagram comparing traditional Western policy cycle with a more complex, context-aware cycle that includes informal networks and historical legacies.]

Dual-Track Selection: Why This Is a 'Slow Analysis' Subject

The handbook’s publication year—2025—makes it timely, but its real value is not found in breaking news or immediate policy headlines. Rather, it belongs to a category of scholarly works whose impact unfolds gradually over years, even decades. This article deliberately takes the “slow analysis” track: a deep audit of the handbook’s methodological, pedagogical, and practical implications, rather than a rushed review chasing current events.

Slow analysis is appropriate because the handbook is designed to reshape foundational assumptions. For university curricula, it offers a ready-made alternative to the standard public policy canon. Instead of starting with the policy cycle from Lasswell, instructors can begin with chapters on how policy is negotiated in the shadow of military control, or how informal taxation works in urban slums. For doctoral students in comparative public policy, the volume provides a wealth of under-explored case material that can generate new hypotheses. For international development practitioners, it serves as a corrective to donor-driven best practices that often fail to account for the political realities on the ground.

One embedded fact worth noting: the handbook is part of the Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa series at the London School of Economics, which signals its institutional backing and commitment to elevating Global South scholarship within mainstream policy debates. This placement ensures that the volume reaches not only academic libraries but also policy think tanks, government agencies, and international organizations.

Over the next decade, the handbook’s influence could be felt in several ways. It may encourage more journals to open special issues dedicated to decolonizing policy studies, challenging the gatekeeping of Northern reviewers who often dismiss Global South-focused research as “too local.” It could shift donor evaluation criteria away from generic indicators toward context-specific measures of policy effectiveness. And it might inspire a new generation of scholars to conduct fieldwork that begins with indigenous categories rather than imported frameworks.

Conclusion: Rethinking Governance Reform from the Ground Up

The 2025 Routledge Handbook of Public Policy in the Global South is more than a reference work—it is a manifesto for a reimagined field. By bringing together exclusively Global South scholars, it demonstrates that decolonizing policy studies is not about rejecting all Western ideas, but about building a pluralistic discipline that takes seriously the experiences of the majority of the world’s population. The handbook shows that governance reform cannot be achieved through technical fixes alone; it must engage with the messy, contingent, and deeply political processes that shape public policy in diverse contexts.

For anyone interested in global governance, international development, or comparative public policy, this volume is essential reading. It provides the tools to think beyond the surface of “good governance” slogans and to grapple with the real dynamics of power, negotiation, and institutional change. As the field of policy studies continues to evolve, the voices in this handbook will be impossible to ignore. The question is no longer whether the Global South has something to teach the North, but how quickly the mainstream will listen.