Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Saez, Lawrence David

Titel

Federalism without a center: The impact of political reform and economic liberalization on India's federal system

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

1999

Link zum Volltext

• ProQuest

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This dissertation is a study of the repercussion of political reform and economic liberalization on the federal concept in India. The dissertation addresses the transformation in India's party system at the state level. I measure the number of parties in India's states in order to show the increased weightage of regional parties. I argue that the decline in dominance of the Congress Party and its replacement by a multi-party system of governance was accompanied by the growth of demands for greater political and financial decentralization of federal relations. I then go on to examine Indira Gandhi's reactive attempt to assess federalism in India by calling for the formation of a commission to review center-state relations. The report of the Sarkaria Commission become one of the most important documents related to the continuing debate about India's quest for federal stability. In my analysis of this report, emphasis is placed on the existing pressures that led to the creation of the Sarkaria Commission and the reactions after its eventual release. The dissertation notes that the rise of a multi-party system and regional parties has stalled the implementation of the Sarkaria Commission's recommendations. Moreover, this political reform was followed by the enactment from 1991 of gradual economic liberalization policies. I suggest that the timing and speed of economic liberalization policies has displaced the debates about federalism from intergovernmental cooperation between the central and state governments towards horizontal interjurisdictional competition among India's states. I argue that economic liberalization has affected institutional arrangements. I support this contention by examining the growing obsolescence of intergovernmental institutions through a case study of the Inter-State Council (ISC). In the case study I analyze the demands for and the reactions to the establishment of the ISC. I use a model of organizational effectiveness to show how the ISC has not been an effective organization. I infer that the ineffectiveness of the ISC is emblematic of the growing obsolescence of other inter-governmental institutions in India. I conclude by showing how the transformation in federal relations in India has affected the ability of the Indian state to address fundamental developmental challenges. Drawing a comparison with China, I argue that the problems faced by successive Indian governments, in directing foreign direct investment inflows into energy infrastructure. I suggest that there are specific structural impediments that may continue to hamper India's ability to attract foreign direct investment into physical infrastructure.