Deliberative Inequality: A Text-As-Data Study Of Tamil Nadu's Village Assemblies

Abstract

The resurgence of deliberative institutions in the developing world has prompted a renewed interest in the dynamics of citizen engagement. Using text-as-data methods on an original corpus of village assembly transcripts from rural Tamil Nadu, India, this paper opens the "black box" of deliberation to examine the gendered and status-based patterns of influence. Drawing on normative theories of deliberation, this analysis identifies a set of clear empirical standards for "good" deliberation, based on an individual's ability both to speak and be heard, and uses natural language processing methods to generate these measures. The study first shows that these assemblies are not mere "talking shop" for state officials to bluster and read banal announcements, but rather, provide opportunities for citizens to challenge their elected officials, demand transparency, and provide information about authentic local development needs. Second, the study finds that across multiple measures of deliberative influence, women are at a disadvantage relative to men; women are less likely to speak, set the agenda, and receive a relevant response from state officials. Finally, the paper shows that although quotas for women on village councils have little impact on the likelihood that they speak, they do improve the likelihood that female citizens are heard.

Using Machine Learning to Optimize the Quality of Survey Data: Protocol for a Use Case in India

“…In 2016, Goldblatt et al used satellite imagery in India to examine areas of urbanization in a rapidly developing country [ 15 ]. A World Bank Group additionally reported using natural language processing to study differences between genders when deliberating topics in village meetings transcripts across Tamil Nadu [ 16 ]. Given the expanding use of these methods in international development and survey work, it is only fitting that we take them a step further to assist with monitoring incoming data.…”

Oral Democracy

“…They have found that women SHG members possess more "oratory competency." This question is further explored in two recent working papers by Parthasarathy et al (2017) and Palaniswamy et al (2017). These authors use text-as-data methods on an original sample of transcripts from Tamil Nadu to evaluate whether and how women participate in village assemblies.…”

“…Similarly, there is work in Andhra Pradesh by Veeraraghavan (2017) that describes the nature of village government systems using more recent data. There is also recent work on gram sabhas that one of us has been involved with in Tamil Nadu that uses data from 2015 (Parthasarathy, Rao, and Palaniswamy 2017;Palaniswamy, Parthasarathy, and Rao 2017). In the concluding chapter we place our findings based on our older transcripts within the context of this work to offer our thoughts about how much has changed and not changed since the time our data was collected.…”

“…Similarly, Tamil Nadu's gram sabhas show much higher levels of political sophistication and responsiveness from officials over the same period with sharply increased participation by women. This is due partly to organic causes and partly to state-initiated policies designed to equalize gender relations (Parthasarathy et al 2017;Palaniswamy et al 2017).…”