Understanding multilevel dynamics in India: constituent power and multilevel governance

Abstract

This introduction to the special issue introduces readers to the specificities of Indian federalism and places the various contributions within a broader conceptual and comparative framework. It argues for an approach that understands centre-state relations in India by 'blending' elements of a 'constituent' and multilevel governance framework. Such an approach acknowledges that constituent power matters alongside an understanding of the resource strength of national and subnational governments linked to political leadership, policy communities and networks. Overall, we argue that constituent and informal subnational power reinforce each other and have contributed to India's resilience as a multilevel polity, even under conditions of one-party dominance at the centre.

Analysing multilevel governance dynamics in India: exercising hierarchy through the Smart Cities Mission

“…While 'urban local bodies' (ULBs) have been created at the local level in response, with democratically elected councils, the responsibilities (in principle) afforded to them under the constitution still reside largely at the state level in practice (Mohanty, 1999;deSouza, 2003) due to only partial implementation of the constitutional amendments by the states. Given the well-recognized tensions there are between what responsibilities are mandated constitutionally at the different levels of government and what has borne out in practice, the value of MLG as an analytical framework comes to the fore (Swenden et al, 2022).…”

“…(Tortola, 2017, p. 238) As Zürn et al (2010, p. 4) note, it is MLG's recognition of the 'interconnectedness of decisionarenas that sets multi-level governance apart from more restrictive definitions of federalism and decentralization', in which the latter theories tend to focus on constitutionally defined responsibilities and interactions between formal governmental institutions. Recognition of this valueadded has led MLG to be successfully applied outside of its original application to the European Union, to federal contexts, such as Canada (Sutcliffe, 2012) and India (Jorgensen et al, 2015;Swenden et al, 2022). However, in the case of India, MLG has primarily been applied to provide a more holistic analysis of the relationship between state and national government, where here it is applied further.…”

“…This insight is achieved through drawing on multilevel governance (MLG) theorizing, and in particular the distinction between 'Type I' and 'Type II' forms of MLG (Hooghe & Marks, 2003. MLG offers a more fine-grained understanding of the impact of institutional reforms on governance relationships within India than a focus on constituted responsibilities alone can (Swenden et al, 2022), the latter of which being the primary means of understanding dynamics across scales within the country to date. To do this the paper draws on documentary analysis and 72 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from the national level and four of India's 'smart cities': Bengaluru, Indore, Jaipur and Kochi.…”