Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Preface and acknowledgments
- PART I INTRODUCTION
- PART II THE GROWING PROBLEMS OF GOVERNING THE PERIPHERY: POLITICS IN THE DISTRICTS
- PART III ORDER AND BREAKDOWN IN THE STATES
- Introduction: the states
- 8 Breakdown in a “backward” state: Bihar
- 9 Growing turmoil in an “advanced” state: Gujarat
- 10 From breakdown to order: West Bengal
- Conclusion: the states
- PART IV CENTRALIZATION AND POWERLESSNESS AT THE CENTER
- PART V FINAL INFERENCES
- Bibliography
- Index
Conclusion: the states
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Preface and acknowledgments
- PART I INTRODUCTION
- PART II THE GROWING PROBLEMS OF GOVERNING THE PERIPHERY: POLITICS IN THE DISTRICTS
- PART III ORDER AND BREAKDOWN IN THE STATES
- Introduction: the states
- 8 Breakdown in a “backward” state: Bihar
- 9 Growing turmoil in an “advanced” state: Gujarat
- 10 From breakdown to order: West Bengal
- Conclusion: the states
- PART IV CENTRALIZATION AND POWERLESSNESS AT THE CENTER
- PART V FINAL INFERENCES
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The study of political changes in five districts presented in Part II helped delineate some broad themes concerning the causes and consequences of deinstitutionalization in Indian politics. The comparative analysis of three states in this Part III helps further refine the causal argument. Of the three states analyzed, clearly the crisis is most severe in the state of Bihar. There is a qualitatively different type of sporadic turmoil in Gujarat. By contrast, political order has been restored in West Bengal after a period of considerable turmoil. How does one explain this regional diversity?
The negative conclusions that emerge from this comparative analysis are as important as the positive ones. It is clear, for example, that problems of governability do not correlate in any simple way with levels of economic development: Bihar is the poorest and most troubled state in India. But if one were tempted to conclude that prosperity produces political stability, the turmoil in the relatively prosperous Gujarat would provide a quick check. Clearly, small variations in levels of development do not provide any ready insights into the process of exercising authority in India.
The political changes analyzed here occurred over a period of nearly two decades. Given India's slow economic growth, the economic changes in that time period have been relatively small.
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- Information
- Democracy and DiscontentIndia's Growing Crisis of Governability, pp. 297 - 300Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991