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DS 21: STATE AND DEMOCRACY

2021-2023 Batch

30hrs. 2 Credits
Ist Semester

Name of the Instructor:

Prof. Ashwani Kumar
Dean, School of Development Studies
Email: ashwani@tiss.edu/ ashwanitiss@gmail.com
Course Coordinator
Ravindra Chowdhary
Email: chowdhary1191@gmail.com
Doctoral Research Scholar
School of Development Studies
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Rationale

Though the centrality of the state in the contemporary world both as a conceptual variable
and an arbiter of social conflicts has been challenged by forces of democracy, civil society
and globalization yet it still remains influential enough to merit a serious and sincere
engagement especially with those marginalized and impoverished who have often been
pushed to the margins of developmental experiences. Even if the state is a source of
empowerment of the marginalized, its possession and exercise of ‘ legitimate coercion’ is
often a potential or real source of infringement of the freedom of the people (Pettit,1996). It is
perplexing context of studying state, civil society and democracy together that may have
prompted Tocqueville to announce the “beginning of a new political science’ .Rather than
mystifying its alleged capabilities, promises and power in bringing about what Karl Polyani
referred to the “great transformations”, the course will seek to contextualize and interrogate
the contested histories, theories and discourses of state, civil society and democracy in the
political theory. By drawing attention to multiple levels of state–society interactions inspired
by ideas of liberty, equality, justice and rights, this view of state-society relations challenges
the image of state as a monolith operating in a rational and instrumental fashion. At the heart
of the modern state’s success or failure is the changing nature of its historical and empirical
engagement and contestation with forces of democracy especially democracy understood as
an” emancipatory project’. It is this idea of democracy that has also come to be put on trial in
our political imagination and social action in recent times. This also reveals why and how
democracy has deviated from its classical/republican moorings. And this can be best
exemplified by the successes and failures of democracy in India. Defying democratic theory
and inhospitable social environment including rise of forces of xenophobia and intolerance of
various sorts and fascination for strong leaders in the recent times, democracy in India has
often seemed to be collapsing yet it survives and marches on. In other words, the course not
only reflects on theories of state but also critically examines the unfolding of “democratic
paradox’ in India and elsewhere.

Grading Policy

 There will be a take-home final exam (50 %).

 Book Review (30 %) Due on 8 November 2021.

 Class Participation (20%)- based on the non-synchronous class assignments /

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workshop/ seminar participations like Gore Colloquiums, Kothari lecture series

etc)

The Lecture plan for the semester is as follows: -( synchronous classes)

Module 1: Introduction to the Syllabus and Grading Policy Conceptualizing the ‘State’
& Organizational- Analytic and Micro-foundational Approaches to Studying the State

References
 Nettle J.P., “The State as conceptual variable”, World Politics, July 1968, 20(4), pp559-
592.

 Levi Margaret, “ Why we need a Theory of Government?”, Perspectives on Politics,

March, 2006, 4(1), pp.5-19.

 Almond, Gabriel, “ The Return of the State”, American Political Science Review ,
September 1998, 82(3), pp.875-901.

Module 2:Organizational- Analytic and Micro-foundational Approaches to Studying

the State
References
 Skocpol Theda, Bringing the State Back In; Strategies of Analysis in Current Research”,
Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and Theda Skocpol (ed.) Cambridge University
Press, 1985 (selected chapters).
 Mann Michael, ‘The Autonomous Power of the State: its Origins, Mechanisms and
Results’ European Journal of Sociology, 1984, 25(2), pp. 185-213.

 North Douglas, “A Neoclassical Theory of the State”, in Rational Choice , ed. Jon Elster,
New York University Press, 1986, pp.248-260.
 Tilly Charles, ‘War Making and State Making as an Organized Crime’ in Bringing the
State Back In, Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and Theda Skocpol
(ed.)Cambridge University Press, 1985.
 North Douglas, “A Neoclassical Theory of the State”, in Rational Choice , ed. Jon Elster,
New York University Press, 1986, pp.248-260.

Module 3: Class-Analytic/Marxist Approach / State-Society Approach, Post-Modernist

Theory and beyond Statist (AK)
References
 Jessop Bob, "Recent Theories of the Capitalist State,” in State Theory: Putting Capitalist
States in their place, Penn State University Press, 1990.
 Carnoy Martin, “The State and Political Theory”, Princeton: Princeton University
Press,1984.( relevant chapters on Marx, Gramsci, Miliband, Poulantzas debate )
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 Migdal S. Joel, “State- in- Society Approach”, in State in Society; Studying how States
and Societies Transform and Constitute Each Other, Joel Migdal, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2004.
 Timothy Mitchell, “The Limits of the State: Beyond Statist Approaches and their Critics,
American Political Science review, 1991, 85:77-96, .82.
 Ferguson James and Akhil Gupta, “Spatialising States: Towards an Ethnography of
Neoliberal Governmentality”, in Anthropologies of Modernity: Foucault,
Governmentality and Life Politics ed. Jonathan Xavier Inda, Blackwell, 2005, pp.105-
130.

Module 4: Weak States/Fragile States &Rentier States: Theory & Evidence

References
 Fukuyama Francis, Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to
the Globalization of Democracy, Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2014( relevant chapters).
 Eghosa E Osaghe, “Fragile States”, Development in Practice, 41(5), pp. 691-699.
 Mahdavy H, “The Patterns and Problems of Economic Development in Rentier States:
Case of Iran” in Studies in the Economic History of the Middle East, ed. M.A. Cook,
Oxford University Press, 1970.
 Gray Mathew, “A Theory of Late-Rentierism in the Arab States and Gulf”, Centre for
International Studies and Regional Studies, Georgetown University,2011.

MODULE 5: Feminism and the State theory

 Deborah L. Rhode, Feminism and the State, Harvard Law Review, 1994, 107(6) Vol.
107, pp. 1181-1208.

 Susan Moller Okin, The Sexual Contract. by Carole Pateman, Ethics, April,1990,
100(3), pp. 658- 669.

 MacKinnon Catharine A., “Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: Towards
Feminist Jurisprudence”, Signs, 1983, 8(4), pp. 635-658.

 Hoffman John, “Is there a case for a feminist Critique of State Theory”, Journal of
Contemporary Politics? 1998,4(2).

Module 6: Conceptualization of the Developmental State

References
 Johnson Chalmers, “MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy,
1925-1975, Stanford University Press, 1982.
 Leftwitch Adrian, "Bringing politics back in: Towards a model of the developmental state",
Journal of Development Studies, February 1995, 31(4), pp. 400 – 427.
 Chibber Vivek, “ Locked in Place: State-Building and Late Industrialization in India”,
Princeton University Press, 2003.
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 Evans Peter, “Predatory, Developmental, and Other Apparatuses: A Comparative Political

Economy Perspective on the Third World State”, Sociological Forum, Dec 1989, 4(4),
pp. 561-587.
 Sinha Aseema, “Rethinking the developmental state model”, Comparative Politics, July
2003, 35(4), pp. 459-476.

Modules 7: The Idea and Conceptualization of Democracy & Democratization

References
 Hamilton Alexander, John Jay and James Madison, “The Federalist Papers” New York:
Basil Blackwell Inc,1987 (Paper No.10 is compulsory reading).
 Moore Jr. Barrington, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in
the Making of the Modern World, Penguin, 1967. (Relevant chapters).
 Luebbert Gregory M., “Social Foundations of Political Order in Interwar Europe”, World
Politics, July 1987, 39(4), pp. 449-478.
 Acemoglu Daron & James A. Robinson, “Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy”,
Cambridge University Press, 2006 (relevant chapters).
 Seymour Martin Lipset, “Some Social Requisites of Democracy”, American Political
Science Review, Vol. 53, No. 1,1987, (March): 69-105.
 Huntington Samuel, “Democracy’s Third Wave”, Journal of Democracy, Spring 1991.
 Fukuyama Francis, “The End of History?”, National Interest, Summer, 1989.
 Stepan Alfred & Juan Linz, “Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation”,
John Hopkins University Press, 1996.
 Michiko Kakatuni, “The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump”, New
York: Penguin Random House, 2018.

 Steven I. Wilkinson, Where’s the Party? The Decline of Party Institutionalization and What
(if Anything) that Means for Democracy Government and Opposition, Vol. 50, No. 3, 50th
Anniversary Special Issue THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY (JULY 2015), pp. 420-445 (26
pages)

Module 8: Idea of Indian Democracy, caste, class, tribe, gender , region: Multiple
Paradoxes
Readings
 Kothari Rajni, Politics in India. Orient Black Swan,1978 (relevant chapters).
 Dr. B.R. Ambedkar , Annihilation of Caste, 1936.
 Weiner Myron, “Democratic Paradox: Essays in Indian Politics”, Sage Publications,
1989(relevant chapters).
 Lijphart Arendt, “The Puzzle of Indian Democracy: A Consociational Interpretation”, The
American Political Science Review, June 1996, 90( 2) ,pp. 258-268

 Varshney Ashutosh, India Defies the Odds, Journal of Democracy,1998, pp. 36-50.
 Gail Omvedt, Dalits & Democratic Revolution : Dr Ambedkar & the Dalit Movement in
Colonial India, 1994,
 Virginius Xaxa, Tribes as Indigenous People of India, Economic and Political Weekly,Vol. 34,
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No. 51 (Dec. 18-24, 1999), pp. 3589-3595

 Rudolph Lloyd, Modernity of Tradition: The Democratic Incarnation of Caste in India,
American Political Science Review, 1965,59(4), pp. 975-989.
 Gopal Guru, Liberal Democracy in India and the Dalit Critique, Social Research, Spring,
2011, Vol 78, No 1, India’s World (Spring 2011)
 Kothari Rajni & James Manor (ed.) Caste in Indian Politics. Orient Black Swan,
2010(relevant: chapters).
 Shepherd Kancha Ilaiah, “Why I am not a Hindu: A Sudra critique of Hindutva
Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy, Bhatkal & Sen, 2005
 Sheth D.L., “Secularization of Caste and Making of New Middle Class”, Economic and
Political Weekly, 1998,37(14), pp. 1317-8.
 Sunil Khilnani, “The Idea of India”, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997(relevant
chapters). • Guha Ramachandra (ed.) “Makers of Modern India”, Penguin Viking,
2018(relevant chapters). Gandhi Mahatma “Hind Swaraj”, 1909.

 Samaddar Ranbir, “Jayaprakash Narayan and the Problem of Representative

Democracy”, Economic and Political Weekly, August 2008, Vol. 43, No 31, pp 49-58.

 Kaviraj, Sudipta “The Heteronomous Radicalism of M.N. Roy” in Political Thought

in Modern India (ed.) Thomas Pantham & Kenneth L. Deustsch, Sage Publications,
1986.

Module 9: Ethnic Conflict, Secularism & Democracy in India ( AK)

Readings

 Varshney Ashutosh, “Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life”, Yale University Press,2002.
 Brass Paul, “Theft of an Idol; Text and Context in the Representation of Collective
Violence”, Princeton University Press, 1997.
 Ashutosh Varshney, Postmodernism, Civic Engagement, and Ethnic Conflict: A Passage to
India, Comparative Politics, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Oct., 1997), pp. 1-20.
 Wilkinson Steve, “Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India”,
Cambridge University Press, 2004.
 SAUMITRA JHA and STEVEN WILKINSON, Does Combat Experience Foster
Organizational Skill? Evidence from Ethnic Cleansing during the Partition of South Asia, The
American Political Science Review, Vol. 106, No. 4 (November 2012), pp. 883-907,

 Stuart Corbridge, Nikhila Kalra and Kayoko Tatsumi, The Search for Order: Understanding
Hindu-Muslim Violence in Post-Partition India, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 85, No. 2 (JUNE 2012),
pp. 287-311.
 Nandy Ashis, An-Anti-secularist Manifesto, “Secularism in crisis”, India International
Centre Quarterly, Spring 1995, Vol. 22, No. 1,
 Chandhoke Neera, Secularism: The Biography of a Troubled Concept from Oxford
Companion to Politics in India ed. Pratap Bhanu Mehta & Neerja G. Jayal, Oxford
University Press,2011.
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 Bhargava Rajeev, Secularism and its Critics, Oxford University Press, 2004. Or
 Rajeev Bhargava, “Distinctiveness of Indian Secularism”, Critique Interntionale,
2007( Available on the net)

For non- synchronous classes

(1) State Capacity in Comparative Context

 Fukuyama, Francis ‘ What is Governance?’ Centre for Development Working Paper No. 314,
March, 2013.
 Bersch, Katherine; Sergio Praca & Matthew Taylor, ‘Bureaucratic Capacity and Political
Autonomy within National States : Mapping the Archipelago of Experience in Brazil in States
in the Developing World (ed.) Miguel Centeno, Atul Kohli & Deborah Yasher, 2017, pp. 157-
183.

 Lee, Melissa M., and Nan Zhang. ‘Legibility and the informational foundations of
state capacity’ The Journal of Politics 79.1 (2017): 118-132.
 Holland, Alisha ‘Forbearance’ American Political Science Review, 110(2), 2016, pp.232-
246.
 Brierley, Sarah. Unprincipled Principals: Co-opted Bureaucrats and Corruption in Ghana."
American Journal of Political Science 64.2 (2020): 209-222.
 Tsai, Lily (2007) ‘Solidary Groups, Informal Accountability, and Local Public Goods
Provision in Rural China’, American Political Science Review, vol.101, no.2 (May), pp.355-
372.

(2)Understanding Elections in India: A Quantitative Approach

Readings
 Kumar Sanjay & Praveen Rai, “Measuring Voting Behavior in India”, Sage
Publications,2013.

 Rudolph Llyod & Sussane Rudolph, “Surveys in India: Field Experience in Madras
State, Public Opinion Quarterly, 1958, 22(3), pp. 235-44.

 Banerjee Souradeep & Shashwat Dhar, Victory sans Grandeur, Economic and Political
Weekly, Vol. 52 Issue No. 51, December 23, 2017.

 Kumar Sanjay & Souradeep Banerjee, Understanding Low Levels of Electoral

Participation in India’s Big Metropolitan Cities, Economic and Political Weekly , Vol.
52 Issue no. 45,11 November,2017.

 Clayton, Amanda & Par Zetterberg. Gender and Party Discipline: Evidence from
Africa’s Emerging Party System, American Political Science Review, 2021, 115(3):
689-884.
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 Dinas, Elias, Konstantinos Matakos, Dimitrios Xefteris, and Dominik Hangartner.

Waking up the Golden Dawn: Does Exposure to the Refugee Crisis Increase Support
for Extreme-Right Parties? Political Analysis, 2019, 27(2): 244-254.

 Guisinger, Alexandra & Elizabeth Saunders. Mapping the Boundaries of Elite Cues:
How Elites shape mass opinion across international issues. International Studies
Quarterly, June 2017, 61(2), pp. 425-441.

(3)Elections, Party Systems and Indian Democracy: Rise of Subalterns/ Plebeians in

Indian Democracy
 Kothari Rajni, “The Congress 'System' in India”, Asian Survey, 1964.

 Chibber Pradeep and John Petrocik, “The Puzzle of Indian Politics: Social Cleavages
and the Indian Party System”, British Journal of Political Science, 1987, 19(2), pp.
191-210.

 Kanchan Chandra, Hardly the End of Dynastic Rule, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.
49, No. 28 (JULY 12, 2014), pp. 25-28 (4)

 Banerjee Mukulika, ‘Sacred Elections’, Economic and Political Weekly, 28 April

2007, Vol. 42 Issue No. 17, pp: 1556-1562

 Yadav Yogendra & Suhas Palshikar, “Ten These on State Politics in India”, Seminar,
2008. • Farooqui Adnan & E. Sridharan, “Is the Coalition Era over in Indian
Politics?”, Common Wealth Journal of International Affairs, 2014.

 Chibber Pradeep& Rahul Varma, “The BJP’s 2014 Modi Wave”, The Economic &
Political Weekly, September 27, 2014, Vol-XLIX No 39.

 Thachil Tariq, “Elite Parties & Poor Voters: Theory and Evidence from India”,
American Political Science Review, May 2014, 108(2).

 Suryanarayan Pavithra, “Why the Poor Vote for the Right-Wing and Why: Status
Hierarchy and Vote Choice in the Indian States”, Comparative Political Studies, 2018

 Yadav Yogendra, “Electoral Politics in the Time of Change: India’s Third Electoral
System, 1989-99”, Economic and Political Weekly, 34(35), 1999.

 Jaffrelot Christophe & Sanjay Kumar (ed.) Rise of the Plebeians: The Changing Face
of the Indian Legislative Assemblies, Routledge, 2009(relevant chapters).

 Chandra Kanchan, Why Ethnic Parties Succeed; Patronage and Ethnic Headcounts in
India’, Cambridge University Press, 2004 (relevant chapters).

 Jensenius Francesca R.. “Development from Representation? A Study of Quotas for

Scheduled Castes in India.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2015,
7(3), pp. 196– 220.
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 Chauchard, Simon. Can Descriptive Representation Change Beliefs about a

Stigmatized Group? Evidence from Rural India. American Political Science Review,
2014, 108(2): 303-422

(4)Money and Muscle Power in Electoral Politics: a threat to electoral Integrity?

Readings
 Vaishnav Milan, “When crime pays: money and muscle in Indian politics”, New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2017.

 Björkman Lisa, “You can’t buy a vote”: Meanings of money in a Mumbai election”,
American Ethnologist, 2014, 41(4), 617–634.

 Sridharan E. & Milan Vaishnav, “Checkbook Elections? Political Finance in

Comparative Perspective “ (ed.)Pippa Norris & A. A. van Es, New York, NY: Oxford
University Press, 2016.

• Chauchard Simon, “Electoral Handouts in Mumbai Elections”, Asian Survey, 58(2),

341–364
Kramon, Eric. Electoral Handouts as Information: Explaining Unmonitored Vote Buying.
World Politics, 2016, 68(3): 454-98.
Johnson, Marcus. Electoral Discrimination: The Relationship between Skin Color and
Vote Buying in Latin America. World Politics, 2020, 72(1): 80-120.
Kumar, Ashwani, Souradeep Banerjee & Shashwat Dhar. Pathways of Money: Insights
from the 2017 Gujarat Assembly Election. India Review, 2021, 19(5): 448-470.
(5)India’s Foreign policy & International Relations
 Mehta, Pratap Bhanu. Still under Nehru’s Shadow? The Absence of Foreign Policy
Frameworks in India. India Review, 2009.

 Bajpai, Kanti. Narendra Modi’s Pakistan and China Policy: assertive bilateral diplomacy,
active coalition diplomacy. International Affairs, January, 2017, 93(1), pp. 69-91.

 Sumit. Ganguly, “Nuclear stability in South Asia,” International Security 33(2) 2008, pp.
45- 77.

 Ashley Tellis, “Unity in Difference: Overcoming the US-India Divide,” Carnegie

Endowment for International Peace, 2015, pp. 5-42

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE COURSE WORK

The final end of the semester examination will be based on material presented in the class.
Students will be required to submit an analytical book review paper between 1200-
1500(Maximum) latest by 8 November, 2020. The topics for the book review from the
references/ readings will be assigned to the students
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. We will use the class for reading and discussion of the material presented in the class. We
will do our best to minimize disruption in the class schedule due to our conflicting academic
engagements/administrative issues or any urgency. If any, it will be notified to the class and
alternative schedule finalized. In fact, due care has been taken in the syllabus to avoid any
information gap in this regard. In case of some unavoidable circumstances, we can switch the
class in a modular format as well.

Instructions for Review Assignment

Review should ideally explore the theoretical material presented in the article. In other
words, the review would let you interrogate the central claims and arguments presented in
the article. { Please read some of the reviews in J store articles so that you can craft your
writing) Two, you need to be careful in citing or quoting your source of information. In case,
you use internet sources, cite URL with date. We don’t appreciate reference to
Wikipedia or definition of democracy or civil society from university websites. In short,
you need to demonstrate that you are familiar with the art of doing literature review,
theoretical interpretation, and also standard template of research. Make sure, you are not
writing an undergraduate- essay or op-ed, or a journalistic report. This is a research
assignment and need to be referenced as per norms of social sciences. Third, we need to make
sure that we are on the same page, so kindly mention the title of your assignment and
name of the instructor on the cover page. And your paper should be 12 fonts, double-
spaced.
Note: You have to submit both an electronic copy and a paper version of your assignment.
Kindly submit both paper and electronic version to the office of School of Development
Studies secretariat and also TISSol. In case of any difficulty or internet relates issues,
kindly reach out to Vishreya madam at the SDS secretariat. There shall be a penalty for late
submission; for each day's delay 5 marks will be deducted. So if you submit your assignment
after 4 days, your grade will be reduced by 20 marks in the assignment. No guessing on this.
Medical emergency or any Learning and other forms of challenges
Kindly let us know if you have any learning challenges or face difficulty in written, oral or
spoken forms of communication, we will accommodate each other with mutual respect and
dignity. There will be after class consultation for those students who have learning
challenges. Please seek appointment with instructors in this regard. In case you have any
medical emergency or family urgency that genuinely affects your studies and
attendance, you need to notify us in writing for remedial measures.
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Classes may be rescheduled on account of holidays or any disruptions caused beyond

administrative control of the instructors. Reference material in modular format will be
circulated for the class and placed at TISSOL. In consultation with the instructors, students
are encouraged to feel free to explore supplemental reference material for research.