Doctoral Dissertation Research: Understanding Changes in NGO's Action Repertoires: When & Why Indian NGOs Use Litigation as a Political Strategy

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In India, NGOs have emerged as the dominant form of civic association, and they mediate between social groups and the Indian state by facilitating government action. This project examines how NGOs partake in the political process more generally and specifically when and why certain Indian NGOs change their political strategies to include litigation to demand rights or policy changes. Resource capacity in conjunction with low levels of political inclusion in the policy-making and policy-implementing arena within the political process are shape NGOs' legal activism. To explain variation in NGOs' decision to use litigation as a political strategy to pursue organizational goals the project will use cross-sectional survey data collected from NGOs located in New Delhi. The survey will provide data on the NGOs' resource availability, the tactics they employ, and the NGOs' relationship with the state and donors.Through the examination of NGOs' legal activism in India the proposed project will contribute to the study of Indian politics and the workings of democratic institutions in a non-western context. Furthermore, this project will contribute to ongoing discussions about enhancing different forms of political participation in India and building viable democratic institutions. This project will also have a substantial broader impact by contributing to debates on how emerging democracies with high poverty and inequality build political institutions committed to enhancing social justice and democratic governance. It will do so via broad dissemination beyond the scholarly community. It will also contribute to understanding how to craft political institutions that allow for adequate and equal access to the state in order to enhance accountability.