Scaling Down and Up: Can Subnational Analysis Contribute to a Better Understanding of Micro-level and National Level Phenomena?

While cross-national analysis dominates comparative politics, many scholars have moved to the subnational level to test hypotheses generated at the national level. Subnational studies allow researchers to control for variation in a way that even the most sophisticated cross-national statistical studies are unable to

A Story of Four Revolutions: Mechanisms of Change in India

Sumit Ganguly and Rahul Mukherji’s India Since 1980 presents a bold and ambitious argument about change across and within India. Its unique contribution lies in its description of four distinct revolutions: social-political, economic, foreign policy, and religious. While many recent books have noted changes in India’s economy and foreign policy, India Since 1980 will be known for its juxtaposition of four different themes in one short, pithy volume. Even if one may disagree with the authors’ choice of the four dimensions of change, the book’s dominant message is that India is changing across a whole range of policies and arenas

How Global Rules and Markets are Shaping India’s Rise on the International Stage

Over the last quarter century, India has shifted from a hesitant economic power to a confident player on the international stage. In her new book, Aseema Sinha draws on extensive research to ask where this global activism has come from, and considers the international dimensions of domestic change. Here she discusses how her findings challenge standard narratives on globalisation and the supposedly homegrown character of India’s reform trajectory

Why Has “Development” Become a Political Issue in Indian Politics?

Most observers of India have an implicit model of how Indians vote. They assume that voters in India act on their primary identities, such as caste or community, and that parties seek votes based on group identities—called vote banks—that can be collated into majorities and coalitions. K.C. Suri articulates the logic of this dominant model: People of this country vote more on the basis of emotional issues or primordial loyalties, such as caste, religion, language or region and less on the basis of policies. The victory or defeat of a party depends on how a party or leaders marshal support by appealing to these sentiments or forge coalitions of groups and parties based on these feelings. People of India, unlike in the West, do not think and act as classes, and they vote for the party or leader they think their own, regardless of its or his policies. Scholarship on India has accumulated strong evidence that elections are permeated by caste, language, religion, and identity politics. The prominence of parties such as the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), organized around Dalits and Muslims respectively, seems to confirm this dominant model. India also has many regional parties, such as DMK, AIADMK, and AGP. The two major parties—the Congress Party and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—also constantly seek to signal religious, caste-driven, and identity-based ideas and policies at the local level in an effort to garner political power. Similarly, intermediate and discriminated caste groups mobilize around caste identity to seek political representation

Book Review, Political Science. Volume 1, The Indian State. ICSSR Research Surveys and Explorations

This book maps the scholarly terrain on the Indian state. The book holds great promise, as the last survey was done in 1995. The volume seeks to understand the state through an analysis of the “social character” of the Indian state, the political economy of the Indian state, social policy, and law and rights. It is a well-edited collection from scholars based in India

India’s Unlikely Democracy: Economic Growth and Political Accommodation

There is no doubt that India’s democracy has become stable, yet economic change could create distributional conflicts and stresses on its democratic institutions. Economic change and liberalization have served to reinforce and further stabilize democracy rather than undermining it. This has happened partly because of the nature of economic and social transition, which has allowed the rich many options in the private, urban, and global economy. Simultaneously, the poor are divided and seek redress through electoral and democratic channels. Weak coalition governments in the 1990s have responded to claims from the poor contributing to the continuing stability of Indian democracy

Linkage Politics and the Persistence of National Policy Autonomy in Emerging Powers: Patents, Profits, and Patients in the Context of TRIPS Compliance

The Trade Related Intellectual Property Agreement (TRIPS) has had a profound effect on industrialization and innovation, as well as access to medicines in cases of public health crisis such as HIV/AIDS. However, compliance with TRIPS has varied in developing countries, despite heightened international pressure. For instance, Brazil has pursued a coherent approach to its HIV/AIDS health crisis, while India has failed to take care of its HIV patients despite late compliance with the TRIPS agreement and the presence of business firms that produce the generic medicines for HIV/AIDS. This article suggests that divergence in TRIPS compliance is the result of a linkage politics, in which global variables (global rules, global supply chains and global networks) reach into the domestic political economy to alter the interests and capabilities of domestic actors. Indian pharmaceutical firms have developed external and export interests that lower incentives for the Indian state to design a nationally relevant public health policy, while the Brazilian health movement with its societal and external linkages puts pressure on the Brazilian state to defend the interests of its HIV patients even at the cost of patents. We conclude by suggesting that linkage politics is better at helping us understand compliance with international agreements than existing explanations, with important consequences for the effectiveness of international institutions