Seeing the State

Abstract

Poor people confront the state on an everyday basis all over the world. But how do they see the state, and how are these engagements conducted? This book considers the Indian case where people's accounts, in particular in the countryside, are shaped by a series of encounters that are staged at the local level, and which are also informed by ideas that are circulated by the government and the broader development community. Drawing extensively on fieldwork conducted in eastern India and their broad range of expertise, the authors review a series of key debates in development studies on participation, good governance, and the structuring of political society. They do so with particular reference to the Employment Assurance Scheme and primary education provision. Seeing the State engages with the work of James Scott, James Ferguson and Partha Chatterjee, and offers a new interpretation of the formation of citizenship in South Asia.

“Governtrepreneurism” for good governance: The case of Aadhaar and the India Stack

“…According to Corbridge et al. (), citizens come to “see the state” through encounters with it. For the lower classes in India, these encounters largely exist through anti‐poverty programmes that mediate relationships and transactions between state and citizen (Masiero & Prakash, ).…”

“…However, as Kothari and Cooke () highlight, participation can in fact be exploitative and create exclusion, acting in the class interests of the most powerful, what they call “the tyranny of participation.” For example, the very process of fingerprint identification positions the body as a constant site of surveillance and as potentially criminal (Finn, ). Participation can mean a whole array of things, including individuals being more passive or active (Corbridge et al., ). Rather than participation in the sovereignty of the state through which citizens can challenge structures of oppression, Aadhaar offers only a passive participation for some citizens to be seen by the state.…”

Can Grassroots Mobilization of the Poorest Reduce Corruption? A Tale of Governance Reforms and Struggle against Petty Corruption in Bihar, India

“…They are described as 'Dalits among Dalits' (Kumar, 2006: 4281), and they face greater subordination than some other Dalit castes (Kunnath, 2012). The general perception in Bihar is that the state bureaucracy and police are not just dominated by upper castes; they also favour the landowning communities, and exhibit hostility towards the agricultural labourers, especially the Dalits and Adivasis (Corbridge et al, 2005;Roy, 2013). An important factor in the caste dynamics of Bihar is the phenomenal rise of backward caste politics, most prominently signified by the election of Lalu Prasad Yadav, a backward caste leader who became the Chief Minister of the state in 1990; between them, he and his wife Rabri Devi held power (separately but consecutively) until 2005.…”

The Political Economy of Social Accountability in Rural Uganda

“…The range of initiatives encompassed by the term can broadly be categorised into either transparency initiatives (such as budget and expenditure monitoring); contentious actions (such as protests and advocacy campaigns); or participation in formal governance spaces (Joshi and Houtzager, 2012;Bukenya et al, 2012). NGOs are considered legitimate actors in the social accountability arena because of their staff's dual positioning as highly educated elites able to mobilize resources to support their activities, and as grass roots participatory facilitators and civic educators able to mediate state/citizen relations at the local level, translate grass roots claims-making into formal discourse, and explain complex policy discourse in everyday language (Corbridge et al, 2005;Bázan et al, 2008).…”

“…Within a broadly social democratic school of critique, analysts have identified opportunities within new participatory governance spaces for citizenship building and an enhancement of the state/citizen contract, particularly when these are combined with institutional reform which hence tackles 'both sides of the equation' (Corbridge et al, 2005;Gaventa, 2004). Working to democratise existing spaces, NGOs are credited with building popular capacity for participation within decentralised decision-making processes through the provision of training and information about strategies of engagement, policies, services and particularly budgets and expenditures (Corbridge et al, 2005;Pollard and Court, 2008); or acting as representatives by lobbying for redistributive reforms focused on socio-economic as well as civil and political rights (Waddington and Mohan, 2004;Mitlin, 2004). NGO engagement in aggregating and channelling claims-making has been framed as building state capacity for responsiveness while equipping state officials with necessary information and awareness, creating more conducive conditions for collaborative planning and implementation processes, and thereby strengthening rather than undermining existing democratic channels, as well as developing alternative routes for claims-making (Gaventa, 2004;Cornwall and Coelho, 2007).…”