Baldev Raj Nayar

The Geopolitics of Globalization: The Consequences for Development

This book explores the various aspects of globalization, especially the role played by geopolitics in its contemporary structuring. It focuses on the role of the US as the hegemonic power along with its European allies. Together, these powers constitute the regime makers in the modern day international system. The others in the system are to varying degrees simply regime takers. Needless to say the regime makers, particularly the US, determine the nature, scope and speed of globalization, and understanding their behaviour and its underlying determinants are crucial for the regime takers. The study operates on an empirically vast canvas, first proceeding to theoretically inform on the nature of globalization and its effect on markets, hegemony, and concentration of economic and political power. It applies findings to the growth of the original Asian tigers, the Southeast Asian nations, China, and the resulting and important influences on India and Pakistan. Available in OSO:

Globalisation and India's national autonomy

The critics of globalisation maintain that it has the consequence of eroding the economic autonomy of the nation-state. In contrast, the argument here is that the national autonomy that is assumed to have existed earlier is exaggerated, and that the impact of globalisation is likely to vary with the capabilities of particular nation-states. An analysis of quantitative and qualitative data pertaining to Indias situation before and after globalisation suggests that, contrary to the position of the critics, there was erosion of Indias economic autonomy before globalisation and Indias autonomy grew, relatively speaking, after globalisation because of the consequent strengthening of its economic capabilities.

Policy and performance under democratic coalitions: India's United Front government and economic reforms, 1996–98

Consistent with coalition theory, the United Front governments tenure was brief. However, its record in economic policy reform raises an important intellectual puzzle as to why a minority coalition government, riven by divisions and polarised between reformers and opponents of reform, uncertain about its continuance in office and dependent on outside support for survival, should have been able to push through a considerable amount of reform. The answer lies in the fact that a coalition government is in the contemporary era subject to strong pressures for reform, arising from the state, the market and the global system.

Globalization, the State, and India's Halting March to Common Market: The Political Economy of Tax Reform Under Federalism

As a social phenomenon, globalization has been the target of much criticism. One particular line of attack holds that it will lead to the segmentation and disintegration of the national economy. However, an examination of the long process of reform of the indirect tax system in India underlines, paradoxically, the significant role of globalization precisely in fostering domestic economic integration in the form of a common market, which would overcome the economic segmentation existing prior to globalization. Interestingly, such tax reform has, in considerable part, been driven by the need to meet globalizations challenge that Indias economy be efficient and internationally competitive. At the same time, one should not underestimate the critically important role of the state as an institutional variable—which critics tend often to ignore—in carrying through the goal of establishing a common market, presently a work still in progress.

The Geopolitics of China's Economic Miracle

a model for the latter. The rise of these miracle economies demonstrated the importance of the shift to the strategy of outward orientation, which in these particular cases had clearly preceded their rise to the status of great trading nations and their transformation into developed countries. Their economic success testified to the strong element of a causal relationship, and not merely a correlation, between an export-oriented strategy and economic growth. Their experience, however, also suggests that the relationship between strategy and growth is not simply an economic one. Rather, it is one in which geopolitics is strongly and intimately implicated. For, the success of the strategy in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea ultimately rested on the geopolitical posture of the US. Not only did the US press (even coerce) for the switch to the export-oriented strategy but it was also willing, for larger geopolitical reasons, to receive the increased

The Political Economy of Reform Under the UPA, 2004–14: The Tension Between Accumulation and Legitimacy

Electoral success during the reform process requires maintaining a prudent balance in meeting the requirements of the two basic state functions of accumulation and legitimacy. Initially, the Congress-led UPA government was the unintended beneficiary of the economic acceleration resulting from a global boom and the earlier economic reforms in aid of accumulation. The growth acceleration, however, also escalated rising expectations. In the effort to advance its legitimacy in order to assure continuance in power, the UPA government emphasized a distributive strategy to the neglect of accumulation. However, the rupture in growth acceleration because of external shock and internal economic mismanagement aggravated the loss of legitimacy stemming from a series of corruption scandals. The consequence was the emergence of an enormous “gap” between rising expectations and the existing reality of economic stagnation and high inflation. It is in the context of this gap that the Congress Party suffered its most severe electoral defeat in history.

Economic Planning as an Integrative Mechanism in India: Changes and Challenges After Economic Liberalization

Besides its principal purpose to plan for economic development, Indias Planning Commission has also served as an influential integrative mechanism for the economy and nation, both spatially and socially. Despite economic liberalization, the state found the commission to be an eminently useful public policy instrument and has continued to retain it. The commission has proven to be a flexible and adaptable organization, receptive to new ideas. Since liberalization, its approach to planning has changed (a) from comprehensive planning to indicative planning; (b) from planning for state hegemony to adapting to private sector expansion; (c) from planning for a producer state to planning for a quasi-welfare state; and (d) from centralization to coordination in planning. Challenges abound, however. The commissions key role in economic integration both over the short and long run, particularly as a link between the center and states, nonetheless makes it worthy of strengthening, not weakening.

The Political Economy of Industrial Promotion: Indian, Brazilian and Korean Electronics in Comparative Perspective 1969-1994

Tables Preface and Acknowledgments The State of the Debate on Development and the State The Evolution of the World Electronics Industry: Innovation, Technological Regimes, Associated Market Structures and Policy Implications for Developing Countries The Political Economy of Export-led Electronics Strategy in Korea The Political Economy of Import-Substitution in the Brazilian Electronics Industry The Development of the Electronics Industry in India The Driving Forces of Indian Import-Substitution: The Political Economy of Indian Electronics Strategy Conclusion: Reconceptualizing Strategic Capacity Appendix Bibliography Index