Suchergebnisse

Electricity as new India's "strategic railway" -- Maharashtra and the politics of selective rural development -- Extractive industrialization and limited electrification in Odisha -- Social movements and electric populism in Andhra Pradesh -- Conclusion : "electricity for all"

The subjects of crime and corruption remain perennially important for social scientists concerned with the nature of power, authority, and order. Steven Pierce's Moral Economies of Corruption: State Formation and Political Culture in Nigeria and Milan Vaishnav's When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics present two very different approaches to the study of crime and corruption, both rich, complex, and lucidly conveyed. As a scholar of South Asia, Kale's approach in the essay is to use insights from Pierce to reflect on the methodological and theoretical choices in Vaishnav's account of India's criminal politicians. In discussing each author's contributions, rather than providing a comprehensive account, Kale focuses on the parts of their arguments that are useful for comparative discussion.

Mirroring the cross-national variation in how electricity became enmeshed in polities and societies around the world in the twentieth century, within British India, too, the emerging electric systems differed by fuel source, ownership, and usage. This heterogeneity was a product of decentralized authority over electricity to provincial governments and the ambiguous freedoms of indirect colonial rule. Rather than being governed according to any discrete logic of colonial governance, electric systems became terrains in which a variety of views about the proper role of the state in industrial transformation as well as the suitable means to promote economic development were elaborated. In turn the emergent electrical systems shaped both politics and governance in the late colonial period and left a strong imprint on politics after independence. If railroads and canals—the quintessential infrastructural technologies of the colonial state—revealed a uniform sense of the state as a particular kind of engine of "development," the far more messy political economy of electrification displayed a mixed understanding of both governance and the state's role in the economy.

Indias recent, spectacular power failure stretched over two days (July 31 and August 1, 2012) and blanketed large swathes of northern, eastern, and northeastern India. National and international pundits and analysts viewed the blackout as further evidence of systemic failures in Indian governance. In this commentary, the authors offer a view of governance in India as a more variegated phenomenon. In some sectors, Indian policymaking has been sharp and effective while in others dilatory and ineffectual. These differences owe much to the powerful effects of historical institutional arrangements. To make the point, they contrast experiences in two sectors of the Indian economy: telecommunications and power. Adapted from the source document.

India's electricity sector remains marked by financial indebtedness and low access and quality. To understand why, 'Mapping Power' provides the first thorough analysis of the political economy of electricity in Indian states. The text examines how the political economy of power both shapes and is shaped by a state's political economy. It concludes that attempts to depoliticize the sector are misplaced. Instead, successful reform efforts should aim at a positive dynamic between electricity reform and electoral success.