The Accommodation of Democracy : A New Political Economy of Poverty Alleviation in Rural India.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Marcesse, Thibaud.

Series:

Modern South Asia Series

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (377 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2025.

Summary:

In The Accommodation of Democracy, Thibaud Marcesse documents the implementation of the world's largest publics works program--called the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme or NREGS--in India's most populated state, Uttar Pradesh. Marshaling a mix of qualitative and quantitative data, he provides insights not just into the way social benefits are delivered to the rural poor in India but also how local democratic institutions work to either facilitate or constrain the delivery of these benefits. He further discusses the ways in which corruption shapes political relationships, particularly between government bureaucrats and local elected officials.

Contents:

Cover

Series Page

Title page

Copyright page

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Acronyms

Acknowledgements

1 Introduction: How Meaningful Has India's Democratic Deepening Been?

1.1 Introduction

1.2 The Promise of Political and Economic Emancipation

1.3 The Second Chapter of India's Democratization

1.4 What Makes a Democratic Deepening Meaningful?

1.5 Contributions

1.6 Summary and Setting of the Study

1.7 Plan of the Book

2 A Theory of Democratic Accommodation

2.1 Introduction

2.2 The Practice of Citizenship and Program Outcomes

2.3 Partisanship and Program Outcomes

2.4 How the Bureaucracy Shapes Interactions Between Parties and Citizens

2.5 Institutions Matter: How State Agents Contribute to an Accommodation of Democracy

2.6 Summary of the Theory and Hypotheses

2.7 Conclusion

3 The Terrain of Local-Level Democratization in Rural Uttar Pradesh

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Has India Delivered on the Promise of Political and Economic Emancipation?

3.3 The Determinants of Poverty and Inequality: Income, Employment, and Ritual Status

3.4 The Terrain of Democratization in Rural Uttar Pradesh

3.5 Bahraich District in Comparative Perspective

3.6 Conclusion

4 How a Democratic Deepening Shapes Program Outcomes

4.1 Introduction

4.2 The Right to Work in Perspective

4.3 Do Outcomes Covary with Needs (and Claims)?

4.4 Has Democratization Shaped Program Outcomes?

4.5 Conclusion

5 Patronage Guaranteed? Partisanship and Program Outcomes

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Demand-Driven and Supply-Driven Implementation

5.3 Do Program Outcomes Reveal Partisan Preferential Spending?

5.4 Parties and Patronage Politics in Contemporary Uttar Pradesh

5.5 Conclusion

6 Party-Voter Linkages and Political Alignment

6.1 Introduction.

6.2 The Political Articulation of the Demand for Work

6.3 Party Building in Bahraich District of Uttar Pradesh: How Parties Assemble Winning Coalitions

6.4 Local-Level Democratization and Political Brokerage

6.5 Political Parties and the Autonomy of Local Democracy

6.6 Conclusion

7 Accommodating Democracy: Rent-Seeking as a Political Strategy

7.1 Introduction

7.2 How the Bureaucracy Represents the State in a Rural District of Uttar Pradesh

7.3 Discretionary Authority and the Extraction of Rents

7.4 Informal Norms of Resource Allocation

7.5 Caste, Political Alignment, and the Variation in Rent-Seeking

7.6 Conclusion

8 Conclusion

8.1 Between Empowerment and Accommodation: Summary of the Argument

8.2 The Institutionalization of Local Democracy in India

8.3 How Much Has Democracy Deepened in India?

Appendix

1 Data Sources and Datasets

2 Democratization and Program Outcomes (Chapter 4)

3 Partisanship and Program Outcomes (Chapter 5)

4 Partisan Alignment and Program Outcomes (Chapter 6)

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-781318-6

0-19-781317-8

0-19-781316-X

9780197813164

OCLC:

1528574981