About this talk

The Accommodation of Democracy examines the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, or NREGS, in Uttar Pradesh, one of India's poorest and most populous states. Introduced through legislation passed by India's Parliament in 2005, NREGS created a legal guarantee of 100 days of employment at a statutory wage rate for all rural citizens. Thibaud Marcesse asks why the implementation of this ambitious poverty alleviation programme varies so significantly across states and localities. Drawing on multiple data sources and qualitative fieldwork from a rural district in Uttar Pradesh, he develops the concept of "democratic accommodation" to show how citizens' claims on the state are shaped not only by economic and status-based inequalities, but also by the actions of local elected officials and bureaucrats. The book offers a sobering account of democratic practice in rural India. It shows that while local-level democratisation has expanded political participation, it has not necessarily produced deeper democratic empowerment for rural communities. Chair: Sunil Mitra Kumar, Director of the King's India Institute at King's College London.

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