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Lessons may be drawn from knowledge about theinbuilt characteristics of public policy. For example,as Legal Empowerment of the Poor tendsto be complex and ambiguous, and as implementationefforts might therefore be hindered, thepolicies to promote empowerment must be madeas clear-cut and straightforward as possible. Designsimplicity is one way to avoid or minimise conflict,uncertainty and other implementation problemsarising from procedural and technical traits of legalempowerment activities.Diagnosing the Influence on PolicyImplementationWe have emphasised the stresses and strains onLegal Empowerment of the Poor implementationto awaken policymakers to the need to think pragmaticallyand opportunistically about policy reform.Policymaking is not an assembly line, and a formulaicapproach to the ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘where’ factorscould lead to overly pessimistic generalisations andmissed opportunities. Effective implementationrequires a mix of experience, professional judgment,and a willingness to take chances. Creativeactors look for policy windows that open up andcreate space for moving forward to solve a particularproblem, even when the circumstances appear to bedifficult.With these caveats in mind, Table 5.4 outlineshow to catalogue the influential factors in differentnations and assess tendencies to impel orimpede implementation (as indicated by the threeright-hand columns). The questions are illustrativeand need to be altered to suit different needs andsituations.An approach to implementation forCountry ‘X’Broadly, Legal Empowerment of the Poor implementationin country ‘X’ might start with an environmentalscan and contextual analysis. The focuswould be on 1) social and cultural features thataffect implementation; 2) the economic context,which also can be both a help and a hindrance,and 3) on the openness and capacity of the state.Supplementing the inventory of these concernswould be a careful analysis of the reach and holdthat informal institutions have on the poor. Thefull contextual analysis would then form the basisfor a feasibility review of various empowermentscenarios.Next (or perhaps simultaneously because these arenever discrete implementation steps), local activistsand external change agents in country ‘X’ would undertakea stakeholder analysis of the constituenciesconcerned with Legal Empowerment of the Poor.The objective: to differentiate among the superficiallyhomogeneous beneficiaries, to better understandthe divisions, alliances and particular needsthat exist among the poor. Other stakeholders, whomight oppose or assist the target group or groups,would also be scrutinised to see what motivatestheir behaviour and reflect on how they could bebrought into the process. The purpose of the stakeholderanalysis would be to get a firmer grasp ofthe probability of moving forward with various LegalEmpowerment of the Poor scenarios, and to beginserious thinking about what it might take to build aminimum winning coalition for legal empowermentin country ‘X’.Finally, with possible overlapping chronology, theinternal technical features of the alternative policyscenarios would be reviewed. The policy characteristicsanalysis would focus on the complexitiesof the various policies, potential ambiguities thatmight possibly sow discord — all of which wouldserve to hinder implementation. Efforts would bemade to find a simple, incremental and sustainablecourse of action, and to avoid as much as possibletaking steps that provoke confrontation needlessly312