Comments on: Problems with a bottom-up approach to governance reform: Evidence from India /2020/07/13/problems-with-a-bottom-up-approach-to-governance-reform-evidence-from-india/ A Critical Perspective On Development Economics Tue, 14 Jul 2020 18:12:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: sripriyasrivatsa /2020/07/13/problems-with-a-bottom-up-approach-to-governance-reform-evidence-from-india/comment-page-1/#comment-6263 Tue, 14 Jul 2020 18:12:30 +0000 http://developingeconomics.org/?p=4755#comment-6263 Thank you for your comments – I will surely look into addressing the gap in content on the liberalisation reforms in the ’90s and the politics that led up to it, perhaps in a separate post! Indeed there was a case of quiet de-funding in terms of directive funds towards issues deemed to be of national importance. On the other end, we also see a pattern where increasing % of most states’ domestic product comes from transfers from the central government. This figure has been constantly increasing since decentralisation reforms were initiated. The Chinese model, whilst a very interesting counterpart, may not be quite as suitable a comparison to draw lessons from for several reasons. The political settlement in India is such that the multi-party system makes it extremely challenging for the centre to maintain much influence at the local government level. This, in a young federation, can prove to be a useful condition to have so as to ensure some basic level of performance/service delivery consistency across regions. Hence, my argument places emphasis on citizen-led accountability initiatives to promote a long-term goal wherein institutional mechanisms will ensure local governments respond to local issues. It should eventually be a political reality wherein citizens’ involvement is dedicated to direct local government to pertinent problems, rather than pressurising it deliver electoral promises. Only to this extent was my engagement critical about any Eurocentric tendencies.

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]]> By: milfordbateman /2020/07/13/problems-with-a-bottom-up-approach-to-governance-reform-evidence-from-india/comment-page-1/#comment-6260 Tue, 14 Jul 2020 15:56:18 +0000 http://developingeconomics.org/?p=4755#comment-6260 An interesting post, but it would have been really good to have provided some important background to the politics in India from the 1990s onwards in order for a better understanding of what happened. India’s neoliberal reforms began in the 1990s and their decentralisation drive appears to have very much been a ‘Thatcher-style’ effort – pass responsibility for crucial services down to local government but quietly defund them at the same time in order to keep them stretched and unable to pursue their own more radical policies that are in opposition to the central government. Thatcher herself was so keen on implementing this particular model that, when she got blocked in London, she actually abolished London’s local government arm (the GLC) in order to ensure it could not implement any of its own (anti-neoliberal) programs. Also, my post from a couple of months ago that you refer to at the end of your post does not claim that all sub-national governments are genuinely inclusive. Far from it, some can be pretty bad. Also I’m suprised you claim that my post was Eurocentric as I actually commented on several successful local developmental state models from Asia, including the obvious counterpart to India’s failure – China – which was a staggeringly successful role model example of the power of local government to create a bottom-up development trajectory, if done right.

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