Andrew K J Wyatt

Combining clientelist and programmatic politics in Tamil Nadu, South India

This article examines the use of material appeals for voter support using evidence taken from the case of the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Two types of material appeal co-exist in this case. Clientelist politics, in the form of vote buying, and the distribution of public resources as political patronage, are features of state politics. Parties also use programmatic policies which offer benefits to beneficiaries regardless of partisan affiliation. The provision of such universal benefits has expanded since 2006. Yet the interest in universal provision significantly pre-dates 2006 and can be traced back to elite policy preferences in the early 1980s. The article shows that competition within a clientelist political system need not lead to the intensification of clientelism. Political parties may dilute their clientelist strategy by the addition of some programmatic policies. The wider implication of this study is that future research on material appeals should pay more attention to parties and party systems as causal variables.

Democracy in South Asia: Getting beyond the Structure-Agency Dichotomy:

With reference to South Asia, we argue that recourse to the conventional structuralist and transition accounts of democratisation sustains an unhelpful dichotomy. Those approaches tend towards either determinism or agent-driven contingency. In contrast, an alternative approach that recognises the relevance of both structure and agency is proposed. In certain circumstances, human agency opens up the possibility of the relatively rapid transformation of structures. In particular, there are periods of political openness when structures are malleable, and individuals, or individuals acting collectively, are able to reshape structures. Decolonisation both constituted a moment of transition and opened up the possibility of structural change in the context of enhanced elite agency. For the purposes of comparison, the discussion covers the three cases of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Particular attention is drawn to political parties and the structure of ethnic diversity as leading explanatory variables.

Populism and politics in contemporary Tamil Nadu

Commentary on Indian politics frequently uses the term populism narrowly to refer to short-term, electorally driven expenditure. However, the term is more insightfully used when referring to an ideological construct that celebrates the importance of the people as an undivided group. Politics in Tamil Nadu has had a strongly populist character since the 1960s with both the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and All-India Anna DMK (AIADMK) making appeals to the ‘people’ of the state. In the last decade, the DMK has adjusted its populist appeals to better connect with lower status groups, a constituency traditionally targeted by the AIADMK. The AIADMK re-worked its approach, using a technocratic populist discourse during its campaign to win the 2011 assembly elections, addressing concerns of higher status voters while still acknowledging its poorer supporters. Populist appeals have been adjusted to compensate for political weaknesses in the two governing parties. Economic and social changes since the late 1990s have created opportunities, as well as imperatives, for reworking populist appeals.

Building the temples of postmodern India: economic constructions of national identity

Abstract This article surveys the place of the economy in constructions of Indian national identity. The theme of physical construction in the literal and metaphorical building of the Indian national economy is explored. New iterations of this longstanding theme are located in an account of a new narrative of Indias ‘imagined economy’. The ‘India Shining’ political advertising campaign of 2004 is understood as an encapsulation of the new economic imaginary. The ongoing relevance of the substance of the India Shining campaign is demonstrated and linked to concerns to establish an India as an international brand. Changes in the Indian economy are linked to an account of the postmodern condition.

Re)imagining the Indian (inter)national economy

The economic dimension of social life has been an important element in the construction of a variety of national narratives. The national economy is frequently seen as ‘a material base for the spiritual pursuits of the nation’. Benedict Anderson’s exploration of the nation as an ‘imagined community’ overlooked the importance of economic themes in the depiction of national identity. This oversight has been made good by a number of writers who have fleshed out the idea of an ‘imagined economy’. Economic themes were especially prominent in expressions of anti-colonial nationalism. The case of the swadeshi protests against British cotton goods imported into India in the early twentieth century was a striking example of the link made between production, consumption and national identity. Satish Deshpande argues that ‘the economy is an important, perhaps even the primary, source of raw material for the nationalist imagination in India’. George Crane argues that economic themes have been a central part of nationalist rhetoric in China. He also argues that, contrary to expectations, economic nationalism, in its rhetorical form at least, adapts remarkably well to the supposedly hostile environment of economic globalisation, commenting that ‘the economic aspect of national identity creates an opening for the intermingling of global and national economic symbolism’. However, contradictory arguments have been articulated. In 1993 Deshpande argued that the externally oriented reforms pursued by the Congress-led Government of India following the 1991 economic crisis ‘in effect evacuate[d] the economy as a resource for imagining the nation’. In a more recent culturalist interpretation Angus Cameron and Ronen Palan argue that most narratives of globalisation depict the national economy as a passing phase in the transition to a global economy. They also argue that the ‘transformation of the state takes place through the deterritorialisation and denationalisation of myths of identity and belonging particular to the nation-state of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries’. In what follows I argue for a more nuanced position. Using the case of India, I argue that the ‘myths of identity and belonging’ so important to the nation-state are being re-narrated and not abandoned. These new myths certainly have an international orientation, and they are not without problems and contradictions, but they are certainly not deterritorialised or denationalised. New Political Economy, Vol. 10, No. 2, June 2005

The Limitations on Coalition Politics in India: the case of electoral alliances in Uttar Pradesh

An alliance between the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party in the electorally vital state of Uttar Pradesh during the 1998 Lok Sabha elections would have prevented the BJP from coming to power at the centre. This article uses coalition theory to explain why this alliance did not form. The analysis reveals that coalition formation in the state is a logical strategy given the fragmented nature of the party system. However, alliances are complicated by social cleavages, factors internal to parties and the dynamic nature of electoral politics in the state. The article concludes with an assessment of prospects for future alliances in Uttar Pradesh and the applicability of this case to coalition politics in India more generally.

Arvind Kejriwal's leadership of the Aam Aadmi Party

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) made its national debut in 2014. Arvind Kejriwal, the National Convenor and a founding leader of the AAP, had a decisive impact on the character of the party. This paper reflects on the significance of Kejriwals leadership in relation to the literature on party systems and political leadership. In 2014, he attempted to open up a new political cleavage and add a new party to the national party system. His entrepreneurial activity drew attention to the issues of corruption and governance. Kejriwals political leadership is assessed in terms of his ability to set objectives for the party, his interaction with followers, his efforts to represent those followers and the development of party institutions. Kejriwals performance as a party leader in 2014 was uneven. The outcome of the Lok Sabha elections exposed the geographical limits of Kejriwals appeal even as he attempted to provide national leadership.

Paradiplomacy of India’s chief ministers

ABSTRACT Since the mid-1990s, state governments within India’s federal system have taken a greater interest in foreign relations. They have sought indirect influence by lobbying the central government to take account of their preferences and direct influence by seeking investment and making links with international organizations and other national and subnational governments. This article considers how chief ministers engage in parallel diplomacy noting how they draw on regional cultural resources and make connections with a regionally defined diaspora. The article finds that some chief ministers have embraced the role of “chief diplomat,” while others take a more discreet approach to international activity. Comparing the cases of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu reveals the political logic for expanding, de-emphasizing, or avoiding international engagement.

Elite formation within a political party: the case of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is a long-standing regional party in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in common with many parties it has an elite segment that is highly influential. The authors identify and analyse the social composition of the DMK elite at the time of the 2011 assembly election. They argue that the DMK elite need to be understood as a group that is constituted by a set of formal and informal institutional rules. They consider the extent to which family connections or ‘dynastic ties’ alongside other informal rules govern admission to the party elite. They ask to what extent the party elite are drawn from society in general or if the elite are skewed towards a socially privileged segment of Tamil society. This paper disaggregates the party elite in terms of caste, gender and religion. They find that the wider DMK elite of the legislative party bear some microcosmic resemblance to Tamil society but that the elite are segmented so this resemblance is very partial at the more senior levels of the party. They also find that the party has a workable structure and a degree of internal pluralism that is not consistent with claims made in the general literature that parties in India are institutionally weak.

The House of Commons: An anthropology of MPs at work

At the heart of this book is an account of ethnographic research completed in the House of Commons between 2010 and 2011. Emma Crewe gained access to the house to carry out the research which inclu...