Power Matters Essays on Institutions, Politics, and Society in India

by Harriss, John

• ISBN13: 9780198063315
• ISBN10: 0198063318
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-04
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This volume brings together ten essays from the author's enduring work on the different dimensions of power in Indian society. Harriss' analysis of power has been debated across scholarly and policy making circles, and the public sphere in India. His influence on India's developmental thinkingand the debate on state's developmentalist organizations has been substantial. The volume traces how issues of political and institutional power explains economic change, resource management, and poverty, inequality and governance, social capital and civil society - all issues of contemporary andcontinuing relevance in Indian politics. Apart from a scholarly audience, this volume will appeal to policy planners, technocrats, and activists in organizations.

Author Biography

John Harriss is Professor of International Studies and Director of the School for International Studies at Simon Fraser University.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Introduction: Why Power Matters	p. 1
Institutions and Power
æBorderlands of EconomicsÆ: Institutions, Politics and Culture in the Explanation of Economic Change	p. 13
Local Power and Agrarian Political Economy An Overview to Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5	p. 29
Making Out on Limited Resources	p. 33
Why Poor People Stay Poor in Rural South India	p. 75
Rural Inequality Matters: Constraints on Growth Linkages from Agriculture	p. 103
Between Economism and Post-modernism: Reflections on Research on æAgrarian ChangeÆ in India	p. 135
æWidening the Radius of TrustÆ: Ethnographic Explorations of Trust and Indian Business	p. 169
State and Society
For an Anthropology of the Modern Indian State	p. 193
Do Political Regimes Matter?: Poverty Reduction and Regime Differences across India	p. 212
Public Action and the Dialectics of Decentralization: Against the Myth of Social Capital as æthe Missing Link in DevelopmentÆ	p. 240
æPolitics is a Dirty RiverÆ: But is there a æNew PoliticsÆ of Civil Society?: Perspectives from Global Cities of India and Latin America	p. 256
Bibliography	p. 275
Index	p. 295
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