Theories of Governance and Development: How Does India’s Experience Fit?

Abstract

This paper takes on the apparent paradox of India's combination of durable democracy, capable bureaucracy, but a deficient development trajectory. It begins by outlining the nature of the problem. Then it summarizes and compares some significant approaches to drawing connections from governance institutions to development outcomes. Next, it reviews some of the contributions to understanding India's political economy in the last few decades. Finally, it attempts to draw some lessons from India's experience for the application of different theories of governance and development. The central lesson is that the paradox recedes when attention is paid to the subnational level, where India's states encompass considerable variation in initial societal and economic conditions and in development outcomes.

Punjab’s Agricultural Innovation Challenge

“…For a more detailed discussion of governance in India, and the importance of comparing Indian states, see NirvikarSingh (2019).…”

Embedded autonomy, political institutions, and access orders

“…22Routley (2012) and Evans and Heller (2019) provide surveys and assessments of the literature on developmental states. Examples of case studies that explore the trade‐off between improved decision‐making and corruption, are You (2005) (for South Korea) and Singh (2019) (for India).…”