Angel E. Alvarez, Ph. D. Research-Consultant-Training Political negotiation of policy reforms In contemporary pluralistic societies, new policies may spark dissent among stakeholders. In these societies, building consensus is a must for successful adoption and implementation of regulations and interventions. Consensually adopted regulations tend to be more successful than those authoritatively imposed. They are almost always the product of delicate negotiations to avoid hindrances during the implementation. The likelihood of approval of the policy proposal hangs on a great deal on the quality of problem formulation and policy design. Ill-defined problems lead to vaguely defined and therefore defective agreements. Nevertheless, the power to approve the proposal belongs to the legislature and top leaders of the executive branch. Decisions on whether or not to support the proposed policy are generally preceded by public or private conversations and debates among propon