At the very least, even if fiat is immediate, implementation isn’t.

Educational Training Unit (ETU), Community Organizers Toolbox: The Policy and Law Making Process, 2011,

This guide looks at the processes of making laws and policies in the different spheres of government. Opportunities for the public to participate in these processes are also identified.

Making new laws and policies is usually a very slow process involving a number of stages during which key issues are debated and negotiated before being finalised as official government policy or before being passed as a law. It can take a few years before a proposed law or policy is implemented and before its impact is felt on the ground.