Reform resistance is not a problem to be overcome. It is information about what the reform is disrupting and what must be managed for the reform to succeed.
Reading Resistance
The resistance that institutional reform generates is consistently underestimated by reformers who conceptualise it as obstruction — the illegitimate defence of illegitimate interests by actors who should simply accept the change that the reform requires. This conceptualisation is strategically unhelpful and often analytically wrong. The resistance is not always illegitimate: the actors who resist reform frequently have genuine concerns about the change's implications for the populations they serve, the operational feasibility of the transition, or the unintended consequences that the reform design has not adequately addressed. The resistance that is based on genuine concern is information — about the reform's weaknesses, about the implementation risks, about the transition costs that the design has underweighted — that the reformer who listens to it can use to improve the reform and increase its chances of successful implementation.
The resistance that is based on interest protection rather than genuine concern is also information — about the power distribution that the reform threatens and the coalition adjustments that will be necessary to move the reform forward. The actor whose resistance is based on the interest that the reform threatens is telling the reformer what the reform costs them and implicitly identifying what they might accept in exchange for their acquiescence or support. This is coalition negotiation information, and it is more valuable than the reformer who treats resistance as obstruction to be overcome rather than negotiation to be conducted will recognise.
The reformer who treats resistance as obstruction learns nothing from it. The reformer who treats it as information improves the reform, identifies the coalition adjustments needed to move it forward, and increases the probability that the reform that is enacted and implemented actually achieves what the reformer intended.
Discussion