Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Accessing the State--Local Governance & Public Goods in India

政治学博士论文研究：走进国家——地方治理

• 批准号: 0920870
• 负责人: Richard Locke
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2010-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0920870&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Political; Science

Clean drinking water, good roads, health care, and education: these are among the public goods and services required to fulfill basic human needs and foster development. Such goods and services are not only integral to human welfare, but are also important indicators of governmental and institutional performance. Yet so-called "public" goods are rarely purely public or equally available to all. Rather they are the subjects of struggle among different groups laying claim to limited public resources. This project examines the variation in access to publicly provided goods and services at the local level in rural India and, in particular, the different paths poor people and communities pursue to obtain such goods. Why do some villages enjoy better roads and water supply or easier access to health and education facilities than other, similar villages? Within villages, why are some groups and individuals more likely than others to receive services? Why, in other words, are some places and people better able to access and make effective demands upon the state? India, the world's largest democracy and a decentralized system, is an ideal setting in which to explore these questions. In India, as in other diverse societies, access to public resources is often drawn along class, caste, ethnic, religious, and gender lines, and may be best understood as a matter of who can extract them from the political system. The politics of public goods in India largely take place at the local level, where access is mediated by a wide range of institutions, both formal and informal, public and private. Elected village councils co-exist with a wide range of informal and non-state institutions including "traditional" village councils, caste associations, self-help groups, business associations, and non-governmental organizations. Together these formal and informal institutions comprise a complex institutional and governance environment. How do people navigate this landscape to access the state and public resources? To answer this question, this project uses mixed methods, applying both statistical and case study analysis in villages across four Indian states: Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh in the north, and Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the south. These states reflect important regional differences between northern (less developed) and southern (more developed) India, as well as state-level differences in the depth of fiscal and political decentralization. To allow for both theory building and testing, village and household level surveys and case studies including semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions are conducted.This dissertation provides insight into the optimal design of programs to improve service delivery by capturing a bottom-up view of how public goods reach the people who need them and the various channels through which people seek and access state services. A central goal is to develop a broader conceptualization of local governance that considers the interaction of both formal and informal institutions in structuring access to public resources. The findings of this project will be of interest in India and beyond, particularly in the developing world, where the provision of essential public goods remains a major challenge to development and where formal state agencies co-exist with myriad informal governance structures. Finally, the project will engage scholars and colleagues in India in developing and disseminating the findings of the study, and will offer training opportunities to local students in carrying out the fieldwork.

清洁的饮用水、良好的道路、医疗保健和教育：这些都是满足人类基本需求和促进发展所需的公共产品和服务。这些货物和服务不仅是人类福祉的组成部分，而且也是政府和机构业绩的重要指标。然而，所谓的“公共”物品很少是纯粹的公共物品，也很少是人人平等享有的物品。相反，他们是不同群体之间争夺有限公共资源的对象。该项目审查了印度农村地区地方一级获得公共提供的货物和服务的各种情况，特别是穷人和社区为获得这些货物而采取的不同途径。为什么有些村庄比其他类似的村庄享有更好的道路和供水，或更容易获得卫生和教育设施？在村庄内，为什么有些群体和个人比其他群体和个人更有可能获得服务？换句话说，为什么一些地方和一些人能够更好地接近国家并对国家提出有效的要求？印度是世界上最大的民主国家和分权制度，是探讨这些问题的理想场所。在印度，与其他多元化社会一样，公共资源的获取通常是沿着阶级、种姓、种族、宗教和性别划分的，最好理解为谁能从政治体系中获取公共资源。在印度，公共物品的政治主要发生在地方一级，在那里，获得公共物品的机会是由各种各样的机构，包括正式和非正式的，公共和私人的。选举产生的村委会与各种非正式和非国家机构共存，包括“传统”村委会、种姓协会、自助团体、商业协会和非政府组织。这些正式和非正式机构共同构成了一个复杂的体制和治理环境。人们如何在这片土地上航行，以获得国家和公共资源？为了回答这一问题，该项目采用了混合方法，在印度四个邦的村庄进行统计和案例研究分析：北部的拉贾斯坦邦和北方邦，南部的泰米尔纳德邦和喀拉拉邦。这些邦反映了印度北方（欠发达）和南方（较发达）之间的重要区域差异，以及邦一级在财政和政治权力下放深度方面的差异。为了使理论的建立和测试，村庄和家庭层面的调查和案例研究，包括半结构化的访谈和焦点小组discussions.This论文提供了洞察方案的最佳设计，以提高服务提供捕获自下而上的观点，公共产品如何到达需要他们的人和各种渠道，人们寻求和获得国家服务。一个中心目标是发展更广泛的地方治理概念，考虑到正式和非正式机构在安排获得公共资源方面的相互作用。该项目的研究结果将引起印度和其他国家的兴趣，特别是在发展中国家，提供基本公共产品仍然是发展的一个主要挑战，正式的国家机构与无数非正式的治理结构并存。最后，该项目将让印度的学者和同事参与发展和传播研究结果，并将为当地学生提供开展实地工作的培训机会。