All Politics is ‘Local’?

This chapter examines the complex interplay between the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA) and the multiple levels of political representation that comprise India's system of local government, known as panchayati raj , which includes elected councils at the village, block, and district levels. The analysis of the politics of NREGA implementation assesses the roles played by both politicians and administrators operating at each of these three levels. These interactions are assessed through an examination of three NREGA-related processes: (1) the increased power and resources of elected local councils, and the consolidation of power within these councils by their leaders; (2) the rationing of work opportunities, and the political logic behind the exclusion of certain groups; and (3) the struggles between village- and block-level actors over opportunities to engage in corruption.

Consolidation (business) · Economics · Language change · Local government · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Rationing · Representation (politics) · Sociology · Work (physics) · Engineering · Law · Public Administration · Social and Economic Development in India · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies