Non-electoral Representation in Public Policy: Institutional Capacity of Community Electricity User Groups in Nepal (http://sjpg.pactu.edu.np/content/sjpg-volume-34-number-1-june-2014)

Controlled arenas of public policy deliberation and deficits within traditional electoral representation system have curtailed actual voice and concerns of citizens in public policy, leading to failure in policy adoption and implementation. Increasingly, actors and institutions outside the government have been found identifying themselves with policy functions of the government. Involvement of the third sector in complimentary roles in service provisioning, resource distribution, and infrastructure management has enabled alternative modes of mainstreaming marginalised voices in public policy processes. This paper discusses the institutional capacity of South Lalitpur Rural Electricity Cooperative to represent the voices of local electricity users in public policy formulation. Its objective is to assess the legitimacy of representative claims in rural electrification.