Why Does the Indian State Both Fail and Succeed
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4029313 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Devesh Kapur (Devesh Kapur is the Starr Foundation South Asia Studies Professor, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC. His email address is ., corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 31-54 |
| Publication date | 2020-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Economic Perspectives (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0895-3309 • E-ISSN: 1944-7965 |
| Publisher | American Economic Association (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1257/jep.34.1.31 |
| OpenAlex | W3005552147 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 19 |
| References cited | 9 |
The Indian state's performance spans the spectrum from woefully inadequate, especially in core public goods provision, to surprisingly impressive in successfully managing complex tasks and on a massive scale. It has delivered better on macroeconomic rather than microeconomic outcomes, where delivery is episodic with inbuilt exit than where delivery and accountability are quotidian and more reliant on state capacity at local levels, and on those goods and services where societal norms on hierarchy and status matter less than where they are resilient. The paper highlights three reasons for these outcomes: under-resourced local governments, the long-term effects of India's "precocious" democracy, and the persistence of social cleavage. However, claims that India's state is bloated in size and submerged in patronage have weak basis. The paper concludes by highlighting a reversal of past trends in that state capacity is improving at the micro level even as India's macro performance has become more worrisome
Accountability · Business · Democracy · Development economics · Economics · Goods and services · Hierarchy · Macro · Market economy · Micro level · Microeconomics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public economics · Public good · Engineering · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies
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Institutional ‘Presence’ and the Indian State
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Institutional Recognition
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The Political Economy of Bureaucratic Overload
The Role of Civil Society in India and Afghanistan
| Unique citing works | 19 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,17 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 19 |