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Paradoxes of Indian Government, Sovereignity - Krasner (organised…
Paradoxes of Indian Government
Legal Vs Legitimate
Progressive
- attempt to bring changes in behaviour/practices by legal or official decree.
Conservative
- Belief in the historical intellect of the society that inhere in the practices flowing from time tested traditions and culture.
Indian Constitution aims at bringing social revolution by law. It is an embodiment of the values and vision of the founding fathers of Indian Independence aimed at changing social behaviour by legal order. Eg-Art 14, 15.
Law Vs Customs - arena for politics removed from issues of governance in the sense of provisioning of public goods.
Laws must follow practice to maintain the legitimacy of state. Inability or apathy of state mechanism to enforce laws leads to 'diluting of majesty of state'. disregard for law = disregard for state
Precocious Democracy
Indian Constitution an experiment - Universal Adult Franchise since independence despite abject poverty, low per capita income, low literacy (18%), life expectancy (32 years),deeply fractured society, multiple fault lines.
Redistributive Politics - Re-allocation of resources from haves to have nots. Political experiment largely progressive.
Identity Politics - Victory by placing candidate from own community in power positions over candidates with promising proclivities for good governance.
Economic Progress vs Democratic Empowerment -Ethiopia - Democratic Developmental State
Pre-mature Non Industrialisation
Stagnation in Industrial Sector despite reducing work force in agriculture. Non proportional shift from agriculture to Service sector - loss of laboour force
Loss of Labour Force- Missing women- socio cultural beliefs and traditions. Unpaid urban care work
Low State Capacity at lower level
Flailing State
: Four fold structure of modernisation-economic growth, political expression, administrative efficiency, equitable social arrangement. Flailing State- poor administrative record.
Despite world class admin machinery at Central and State level, extremely poor translation at grass roots where actual provisioning of resources must occur. Absenteeism, lack of effort, instituionalisation of corruption.
Challenge - Good Policy without consideration of state capacity for implementation is just an expression of intent and not a tangible solution.
Root Cause - Identity Politics. Administrative alignment along political priorities in the long run. Politics not based on good governance but community identity - UAF before mass education and awareness. Integrity and non-partisan character of civil service has been eroded. "...because between the expression of the will of the state (represented by politicians) and the execution of that will (represented by the administrators) there cannot be any long-term dichotomy. The model in which the politics will continue to be corrupt, casteist and will harbour criminals whereas civil service will continue to be efficient, responsive to public needs and change agents cannot be sustained indefinitely. In the long run political and administrative values have to co-incide.
Domain specific and time specific policies at grass roots ?
Devesh Kapoor - Why does the Indian State both Fail and Succeed
Strong State at central and state level with highly proficient policy formulation, macroeconomic measures such as inflation containment, national highways, electricity generation, space exploration, armed forces, etc.
Meritocracy in selection of bureaucrats, fixed tenures, non-partisan character, integrity : closeness to Weberian Bureaucratic norms.
Visible actions such as infrastructure, etc more preferred over long term public goods such as humam resource development, environment, etc. Emphasis on 'club goods' with excludability.
Weak allocation of regular everyday resources at grass roots-local healthcare, education, drinking water, sanitation, electricity, etc.
Inadequate Local Government resources: Low percentage share of pers employed at grass roots wrt state or central government apparatus. Lack of domain specialisation. Low level officials prone to factors of societal failures such as caste discrimination, patriarchal structure, regressive social and cultural norms.
Precocious Democracy
Persistence of Social Hierarchies and Cleavages
Ability to perform well in episodic goal oriented projects with automatic exit : Election commission, Census, Kumbh Mela, etc - same personnel that are ineffective providers of regular services turn efficient in such result oriented projects.
Sovereignity
- Krasner (organised hypocrisy)
Domestic
Control over all issues within the territory of the sovereign state
Interdependent
Control over the borders of the state. Ability to control movement of goods and people across border. Depends on the relative strength wrt neighboring sovereign.
Relates to actions that a sovereign can undertake in the inter-state arena without getting influenced by other states. Function of relative power of the state vis-a-vis other states.
Westphalian/Vattelian
Power to prevent others from interfering in domestic matters.
International Legal
Peer Sovereignity - Recognised as a sovereign by other sovereigns
Nationalists- nations (imagined communities) have a right to self-determination (sovereignty)- every nation should have their own nation state.
Self determination (or nation state) may leead to exloitation of people and curtailing of freedom. Does self-determination surpass individual liberty ?