IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v38y2020i4p619-635.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Democratic decentralization, microcredit, and the workings of local government in rural India

Author

Listed:
  • Dolly Daftary

    (University of Massachusetts Boston, USA)

Abstract

While democratic decentralization in India has commonly been studied as a project of deepening democracy, this article discusses decentralization as a form of state spatial restructuring in the epoch of market reforms. Drawing upon ethnographic fieldwork, I trace the shift in the nature of elected local bodies and their retooling to deepen financial markets in rural India. The case of the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, the Indian state’s largest microcredit program, reveals the rise in the salience of local governments as the site of state spatial policy in the 21st century, and the restructuring of decentralized local governance to deepen financial institutions’ penetration in rural areas. Local governments called panchayats have emerged as state organizations of microgovernance as capital moves to new scales in search of value. Findings from Gujarat, India’s leading state of pro-market reforms, reveal panchayats’ role in metagovernance—the governance of government, and the ascendance of information and communication technologies in panchayat practice to annihilate spatio-temporal barriers for the circulation of financial and material capital.

Suggested Citation

  • Dolly Daftary, 2020. "Democratic decentralization, microcredit, and the workings of local government in rural India," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 38(4), pages 619-635, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:38:y:2020:i:4:p:619-635
    DOI: 10.1177/2399654419897920
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2399654419897920
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2399654419897920?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brenner, Neil, 2004. "New State Spaces: Urban Governance and the Rescaling of Statehood," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199270064.
    2. Birner, Regina & Resnick, Danielle, 2010. "The Political Economy of Policies for Smallholder Agriculture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 1442-1452, October.
    3. Jesus Felipe & Rana Hasan (ed.), 2006. "Labor Markets in Asia," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-62738-3, December.
    4. Saskia Sassen, 2008. "Introduction to Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages," Introductory Chapters, in: Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages, Princeton University Press.
    5. Dolly Daftary, 2016. "Development in Post-liberalization India: Marketization, Decentralization and Informalization in Gujarat," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 28(4), pages 690-704, September.
    6. Reddy, D. Narasimha & Mishra, Srijit (ed.), 2009. "Agrarian Crisis in India," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195695953.
    7. Anjini Kochar, 2011. "The Distributive Consequences of Social Banking: A Microempirical Analysis of the Indian Experience," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(2), pages 251-280.
    8. Kilby, Patrick, 2006. "Accountability for Empowerment: Dilemmas Facing Non-Governmental Organizations," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 951-963, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kees Terlouw, 2020. "Towards a Neomedieval Urban Future: Neoliberal or Sustainable?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-15, September.
    2. Geneviève Zembri-Mary & Virginie Engrand-Linder, 2023. "Urban planning law in the face of the Olympic challenge: Between innovation and criticism of exceptional urban regeneration," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 38(4), pages 369-388, June.
    3. Leonardo Garavito González (Editor) & Germán Cortés Millán (Editor), 2023. "Defensas Colectivas del Territorio en América Latina: persistencias y mutaciones," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, number 168, March.
    4. K. N. Harilal & K. K. Eswaran, 2016. "Agrarian Question and Democratic Decentralization in Kerala," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 5(2-3), pages 292-324, August.
    5. Kevin Fox Gotham, 2014. "Racialization and Rescaling: Post-Katrina Rebuilding and the Louisiana Road Home Program," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 773-790, May.
    6. Andrew Clarke & Lynda Cheshire, 2018. "The post-political state? The role of administrative reform in managing tensions between urban growth and liveability in Brisbane, Australia," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(16), pages 3545-3562, December.
    7. Boggio, Luciano, 2009. "Long-run effects of low-wage countries' growing competitiveness and exports of manufactures," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 38-49, March.
    8. Sumit Agarwal & Thomas Kigabo & Ms. Camelia Minoiu & Mr. Andrea F Presbitero & Andre Silva, 2018. "Financial Access Under the Microscope," IMF Working Papers 2018/208, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Bachewe, Fantu Nisrane & Koru, Bethlehem & Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum, 2018. "Productivity and efficiency in high-potential areas," IFPRI book chapters, in: The economics of teff: Exploring Ethiopia’s biggest cash crop, chapter 7, pages 149-180, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    10. Juliana Hurtado Rassi, 2020. "Gestión conjunta de ecosistemas transfronterizos: la importancia del trabajo articulado entre los Estados para la conservación de los recursos naturales. Análisis del caso particular de la “Reserva de," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Derecho, number 1241, February.
    11. Singh, Nirvikar, 2018. "Financial Inclusion: Concepts, Issues and Policies for India," MPRA Paper 91047, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Natalie Papanastasiou, 2017. "The practice of scalecraft: Scale, policy and the politics of the market in England’s academy schools," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(5), pages 1060-1079, May.
    13. Fricke, Carola, 2014. "Grenzüberschreitende Governance in der Raumplanung: Organisations- und Kooperationsformen in Basel und Lille," Arbeitsberichte der ARL: Aufsätze, in: Grotheer, Swantje & Schwöbel, Arne & Stepper, Martina (ed.), Nimm's sportlich - Planung als Hindernislauf, volume 10, pages 62-78, ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.
    14. Cavicchia, Rebecca, 2023. "Housing accessibility in densifying cities: Entangled housing and land use policy limitations and insights from Oslo," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    15. Burger Ronelle & Owens Trudy & Prakash Aseem, 2018. "Global Non-Profit Chains and the Challenges of Development Aid Contracting," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 9(4), pages 1-12, December.
    16. Deepta Chopra, 2015. "Political commitment in India’s social policy implementation: Shaping the performance of MGNREGA," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-050-15, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    17. Ravi Kanbur, 2017. "Informality: Causes, consequences and policy responses," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 939-961, November.
    18. Matthias Bernt, 2009. "Partnerships for Demolition: The Governance of Urban Renewal in East Germany's Shrinking Cities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 754-769, September.
    19. Sebastian-Ion Ceptureanu & Eduard-Gabriel Ceptureanu & Mihai Cristian Orzan & Irinel Marin, 2017. "Toward a Romanian NPOs Sustainability Model: Determinants of Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-26, June.
    20. Bayirbag Mustafa K., 2011. "Pro-Business Local Governance and (Local) Business Associations: The Case of Gaziantep," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(4), pages 1-39, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:38:y:2020:i:4:p:619-635. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.