IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/soasur/v19y2012i1p113-132.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Contours of Governance Reforms in India

Author

Listed:
  • Soumyadip Chattopadhyay
  • Seemantini Chattopadhyay

Abstract

Good governance—which includes accountability, transparency, an effective bureaucracy, regulatory quality, electoral competition, political checks and balances and rule of law—is considered the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development. The article discusses changes that have taken place in India with regard to governance reforms, focusing on reforms related to decentralisation. A review of available evidence does not provide any definitive conclusion about the effectiveness of decentralisation in facilitating democratic deepening and improving the responsiveness of government. In most cases, decentralisation has failed to bring popular participation and accountability to local government, thereby making it less responsive to citizens’ desires and less effective in delivering services. Appropriate institutions, rules and incentive mechanisms are needed to link the citizens with government. Capacity development of the citizens and conscious and combined efforts by government and non-government organisations could potentially improve both the governance system as well as public service delivery.

Suggested Citation

  • Soumyadip Chattopadhyay & Seemantini Chattopadhyay, 2012. "Contours of Governance Reforms in India," South Asian Survey, , vol. 19(1), pages 113-132, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:soasur:v:19:y:2012:i:1:p:113-132
    DOI: 10.1177/0971523114539592
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0971523114539592
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0971523114539592?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. Craig Johnson & Priya Deshingkar & Daniel Start, 2005. "Grounding the State: Devolution and Development in India's Panchayats," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(6), pages 937-970.
    2. Echeverri-Gent, John, 1992. "Public participation and poverty alleviation: The experience of reform communists in India's West Bengal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 20(10), pages 1401-1422, October.
    3. Jha, Saumitra & Rao, Vijayendra & Woolcock, Michael, 2007. "Governance in the Gullies: Democratic Responsiveness and Leadership in Delhi's Slums," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 230-246, February.
    4. Lant Pritchett, 2009. "A Review of Edward Luce's In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(3), pages 771-780, September.
    5. Bardhan Pranab K. & Mookherjee Dilip & Parra Torrado Monica, 2010. "Impact of Political Reservations in West Bengal Local Governments on Anti-Poverty Targeting," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 1-38, January.
    6. Wade, Robert, 1985. "The market for public office: Why the Indian state is not better at development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 467-497, April.
    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. Singh, Nirvikar, 2007. "Fiscal Federalism and Decentralization in India∗," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt11b543tk, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    2. Chin, Aimee & Prakash, Nishith, 2011. "The redistributive effects of political reservation for minorities: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 265-277, November.
    3. Leonid Peisakhin, 2012. "Transparency and Corruption: Evidence from India," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(1), pages 129-149.
    4. Singh, Nirvikar, 2007. "Fiscal Federalism and Decentralization in India," MPRA Paper 1447, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Leonid Peisakhin & Paul Pinto, 2010. "Is transparency an effective anti‐corruption strategy? Evidence from a field experiment in India," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 4(3), pages 261-280, September.
    6. Bardhan, Pranab, 2022. "Clientelism and governance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    7. Conning, Jonathan & Kevane, Michael, 2001. "Community based targeting mechanisms for social safety nets," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 23146, The World Bank.
    8. Chandan Deuskar, 2020. "Informal urbanisation and clientelism: Measuring the global relationship," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(12), pages 2473-2490, September.
    9. Elizabeth Kaletski & Nishith Prakash, 2017. "Can Elected Minority Representatives Affect Health Worker Visits? Evidence from India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 67-102, February.
    10. Joo, Hailey Hayeon & Lee, Jungmin, 2018. "Encountering female politicians," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 88-122.
    11. Thushyanthan Baskaran & Sonia Bhalotra & Brian Min & Yogesh Uppal, 2024. "Women legislators and economic performance," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 151-214, June.
    12. Alex Izurieta, 2009. "Forum 2009," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 40(6), pages 1153-1190, November.
    13. Simplice A. Asongu, 2014. "Finance and Democracy in Africa," Institutions and Economies (formerly known as International Journal of Institutions and Economies), Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, vol. 6(3), pages 92-116, October.
    14. Carolina Castilla, 2017. "Political role models, child marriage, and women’s autonomy over marriage in India," WIDER Working Paper Series 121, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Monica Das Gupta, 1999. "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite: Exploring the role of governance in fertility decline," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(5), pages 1-25.
    16. Nicola Banks, 2016. "Livelihoods Limitations: The Political Economy of Urban Poverty in Dhaka, Bangladesh," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 47(2), pages 266-292, March.
    17. Santosh Kumar & Nishith Prakash, 2012. "Political Decentralization, Women's Reservation and Child Health Outcomes: A Case Study of Rural Bihar," Working papers 2012-18, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    18. Das Gupta, Monica & Grandvoinnet, Helene & Romani, Mattia, 2000. "State-community synergies in development : laying the basis for collective action," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2439, The World Bank.
    19. Jayachandran, Seema & Biradavolu, Monica & Cooper, Jan, 2021. "Using Machine Learning and Qualitative Interviews to Design a Five-Question Women's Agency Index," IZA Discussion Papers 14221, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Vivek Pandey & Ankita Rathi & Deepak Kumar, 2023. "Governance response during COVID‐19 and political affirmative action: Evidence from local governments in India," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(2), pages 185-195, May.

    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:soasur:v:19:y:2012:i:1:p:113-132. 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.