Dissertaton Research: Decentralization and Social Capital: Implications for Institutional Innovation in Forest Management and Development Planning in India

这项建议旨在通过从比较的角度研究社会资本在权力下放工作成败中的作用，帮助理解权力下放的森林管理。此外，我的目标是分析权力下放、发展和森林保护之间的联系。第一个问题涉及社会资本水平如何影响社区森林管理的权力下放。这个问题使我们能够将人员和网络之间的互动与组织的有效运作联系起来。我把这称为操作层面。第二个问题涉及森林管理和发展规划这两个领域的组织之间的联系对森林委员会运作的重要性。这里重要的一点是，与森林有关的专门委员会嵌套在更广泛的发展规划委员会内。回答这一问题使我们能够探讨和分析这两个机构之间的事实上的联系是否有利于规模较小和更专门的组织。我把这称为补充水平。第三个问题是，州政府较高级别的部门间联系如何影响分散的森林管理的绩效。这个问题帮助我们从操作层面进入集体选择层面。许多研究表明，操作规则对于克服集体行动问题非常重要。然而，很少有人对业务选择和集体选择之间的联系进行调查。第三个问题试图进行这一调查。这项研究是在印度北孟加拉邦的贾尔拜古里和大吉岭地区进行的。

This proposal aims to contribute to understanding decentralized forest management by examining, the role of social capital in the success or failure of the decentralization efforts in comparative perspective. In addition, my objective is to analyze the links among decentralization, development, and forest conservation. I do so through a focus on three questions.The first question involves how the level of social capital influences decentralization in forest management in the communities. This question allows us to relate interaction among people and networks to the efficient functioning of organizations. I refer to this as the operational level. The second question pertains to the importance of linkages between organizations in the two domains of forest management and development planning for the functioning of forest-related committees. The important point here is that the specialized forest-related committees are nested within more generalized development planning committees. Answering this question allows us to explore and analyze whether the de facto linkages between the two bodies are beneficial to the smaller and more specialized organization. I refer to this as the complementary level. The third question asks how inter-departmental linkages at higher levels in the state government hierarchy affect the performance of the decentralized forest management bodes. This question helps us to move from the operational level to the collective choice level. Many studies show that the operational rules are important to overcome collective action problems. However, there has been very little inquiry into the links between the operational and collective choice level. The third question attempts to undertake this inquiry. The research is conducted in Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling districts in North Bengal, India.