Is Deliberation Equitable? Evidence From Transcripts Of Village Meetings In South India

Abstract

Deliberative decision-making processes are becoming increasingly important around the world to make important decisions about public and private goods allocation, but there is very little empirical evidence about how they actually work. In this paper the authors use data from India extracted from 131 transcripts of village meetings matched with data from household surveys conducted in the same villages prior to the meetings, to study whose preferences are reflected in the meetings. The meetings are constitutionally empowered to make decisions about public and private goods. The findings show that the more land a person owns, the This paper-a product of the Poverty Team, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the department to understand local government and citizen-based engagement in developing countries. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://econ.worldbank.org. The author may be contacted at vrao@worldbank.org.higher the likelihood her preference is mentioned in the meeting, the longer the amount of time spent discussing this preference, and the higher the likelihood that a decision to provide or repair this public or private good is taken. At the same time, the voices of disadvantaged castes, while not dominating the meeting, are also heard. By contrast, the preferences of Muslims are given less time. High village literacy and the presence of higher level officials during village meetings mitigate the power of the landed, but political reservations for low castes for the post of village president increase the power of the landed.

Gender and Governance in Rural Services

“…Landowners are more likely to have their priorities discussed during meetings, and deliberations over their issue tend to last longer. Ban and Rao (2008a) argue that this finding may point to the relative ineffectiveness of female leadership (similar results prevail for SC, ST, and OBC reservation). Other researchers show that women reservation policies improved the access of women to political office in West Bengal (Beaman and others 2008) ).…”

“…Village differences are attributable to differences in population size and literacy, with larger villages and villages with a higher literacy rate being more likely to hold gram sabha meetings. Ban and Rao (2008a) find that gram sabhas in reserved gram panchayats headed by women are significantly more likely to be dominated by landowners. Landowners are more likely to have their priorities discussed during meetings, and deliberations over their issue tend to last longer.…”

“…However, they tend to be more politically knowledgeable, wealthier, and older than the average woman in the population and to have the same level of education. Ban and Rao (2008b) conclude that female presidents are not mere tokens.…”

“…Besley, Pande, and Rao (2005b) landholdings, and political past of the politician explain his or her selection: local politicians tend to be better educated than their constituencies, have larger landholdings, and belong to families with a political history. Using the same data set as Besley, Pande, and Rao (2005b), Ban and Rao (2008b) show that women reservation policies do not lead to an unbiased election of female gram panchayat presidents. "Reserved" female presidents are significantly less educated, less knowledgeable, less politically experienced, and younger than unreserved presidents.…”

“…Foster and Rosenzweig (2004) note that the interpretation of gender differences in rural service provision is complicated by the absence of information on the nature of the preferences of female and male gram panchayat presidents. Ban and Rao (2008a) suggest that female-and male-headed gram panchayats provide similar drinking water, health, sanitation, roads, transport, and electricity services. Significant differences are evident only in education: gram panchayats reserved for female presidents pursue significantly more education activities than unreserved constituencies.…”