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This paper examines the diffusion of human rights norms among domestic state actors after a state has formally endorsed these norms, with a focus on the right to be free from torture. The findings reveal the ways in which lack of trust in legal and political processes in India contributes to Indian law enforcement officers' resistance to human rights that protect suspects from torture. I argue that flaws in the legal and political context inform the way these officers interpret these rights as well as the normative arguments that are available to them to justify violations. The findings suggest that it is not only formal political structures and national "culture" that inform norm diffusion, as other scholars have argued. Nonformal aspects of the political context and state actors' perceptions of this context can matter as well for whether and how norms diffuse after formal state endorsement has occurred. The paper is based on twelve months of in-depth fieldwork in India with law enforcement officers who are participating in human rights education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to food is essential to ensuring an adequate standard of living; it is one of the most basic of all economic rights. Yet around the world, millions of people continue to starve outright, or to suffer hunger-related disease and life challenges. Food insecurity is disproportionately associated with countries that are politically unstable or wracked by regional strife; indeed, famine is an intrinsically political phenomenon. That is why hunger in India -- the world's most populous democracy -- is paradoxical. This paper "maps" the prevalence of hunger in India, demonstrating variation not only in the depth of hunger by state but also showing variation in the level of social protest around food issues from 1990-2010. Drawing on two original datasets created for this project, I demonstrate: 1) variation in the use of public interest law (PIL) as an advocacy strategy; and 2) variation in the level and form of other types of protest (e.g., street protests and farmer suicides) during this period. I also point to the recent shift of hunger issues into party politics and argue that the evolution of advocacy strategies by the "Right to Food" movement in India -- a shift from the courts to the street to party politics -- challenges dominant interpretations of social mobilization around "interest-based" issues in that country (Katzenstein, Kothari and Mehta 2001). The paper aims to set the stage for a field-level study of local activism that could inform broader theorizing on the interplay between law, institutions, and grassroots networks in the process of realizing economic rights such as the right to food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do bad politicians thrive in electoral democracies? This paper explores the conditions under which political parties select candidates with serious criminal records to contest elections in India, the world's largest democracy. I argue that indicted politicians benefit parties when they can exploit social divisions to build a compelling case that their criminality gives them an edge in serving the interests of their fellow co-ethnics. In particular, I hypothesize that criminality is likely to be lower in constituencies constitutionally reserved for protected minorities and in indirectly elected bodies, where caste divisions are less salient. In reserved constituencies, however, the salience of caste is likely to vary with the size of the minority population. Using a unique dataset drawn from candidate affidavits, this paper finds support for these hypotheses. This paper serves as a reminder that the "criminalization" of politics is not a monolithic phenomenon, but is highly contextual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My paper will investigate the varying political opportunities in princely states and provinces under direct colonial rule for peasant movements to transition into electorally successful political parties in India. Contemporary states of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh had comparable peasant movements during the colonial era. However the Left was elected into power only in Kerala and not in Andhra Pradesh. A historical examination of peasant movements and electoral outcomes reveals that states which had areas under British provinces and progressive rulers had successful Left parties elected into power, for example Kerala. But, states which were formed with parts of British provinces and patrimonial rulers offered fewer chances for the Left party to be elected into power despite a history of peasant movements. The mechanism through which political opportunity structure influences electoral success of Left parties is organizational strength of the peasant movements. The organizational bases of peasant movements serve as networks for campaigning, raising funds for campaigns, providing patronage at the local level and mobilizing voters. In this paper I present evidence that the organizational strength of peasant movement and chances for the peasant movement to transition into an electorally successful Left party depends on the nature of the colonial rule, direct or indirect - progressive or patrimonial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do elite parties win over poor voters while maintaining their core constituencies? How can religious parties expand their electoral base? This paper argues that social service provision constitutes an important electoral strategy for elitebacked religious parties to succeed in developing democracies. The paper demonstrates how the upper caste, Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won unexpected support from lower caste voters in India, due to the services provided by its grassroots affiliates. Using a combination of original survey data and extensive interviews, I test whether services win votes, and reveal the mechanisms through which they do so. I argue that since service can influence even non-beneficiary preferences, and since ideologically committed activists do not follow a quid pro quo logic of provision, a service-based electoral tactic should not be narrowly classified as clientelism. Instead, service should be seen as a socially embedded tactic especially well suited to helping elite parties with organizational resources, but without pro-poor policy agendas, win over underprivileged electorates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Left-wing extremist movements in the form of Maoist rebellion in Nepal and India, though guided by same motivation and goal of revolutionary change have differed extensively in political outcomes. Why does a similar political movement give rise to different outcomes? It has been largely traced to historical, cultural and institutional variance. However, embedded within the macro processes are strategic interactions between individuals as rational decision-making units that channels the movement in particular direction. In this paper, I argue that the sequence of interactions between the rebels and the state is important in understanding the differing outcomes of this violent political movement. The division of the Maoist rebellion in India (particularly in West Bengal) and Nepal by the Nepal-India border provides an ideal ground to conduct a natural experiment for comparing the dynamics of an identical left-wing extremist movement in different settings. Through comparative case studies, this paper examines the link between repression and dissent and locates it within the spiral action-repression-action cycle. The paper further contends that the differing dynamics of the strategic dimensions at two levels - target selection by the rebels and the use of violence is crucial in determining the outcome of the movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about rural-urban migration in China and India is presented which is prepared for presentation at the American Political Science Association Conference, in Toronto, Ontario, on September 2-6, 2009. The paper discusses topics including experiments in India and China for in absorbing rural populations for better understanding how the practice of citizenship is improved, and infrastructure projects in the two countries.

A research paper about governance patterns of HIV/AIDS medication in India and Brazil is presented which is to be discussed at the Annual Meetings of the American Political Science Association, in Toronto, Ontario, from September 3-6, 2009. The paper discusses topics including the availability of affordable HIV/AIDS drugs in India and Brazil, and the effects of private self-regulation and governmental intervention for the provision of public goods.

The paper examines diaspora investments in China and India, compared to investments made by Western MNCs, to demonstrate the unique policy role of ethnic investors. In China, ethnic capital (EDI) holds a significant share of incoming FDI, a phenomenon having been noted insufficiently. When EDI is noted, it has been treated as a product of Beijing's pro-FDI policy, rather than the cause of the liberalization. I argue in this paper that EDI has in fact driven the process of pro-FDI policy making in the PRC by demonstrating the superiority of openness and incorporating domestic interest groups in support of FDI. In India, the amount of EDI has been smaller than FDI; total FDI has been much smaller than China also. Conventional wisdom has treated diapora Indians as unimportant in India's economic liberalization since the 1990s. Again, I contend in this article that EDI has also been important for India's FDI liberalization, more quietly than diaspora Chinese in the PRC, to be sure. India's FDI liberalization has generally been more limited than China, with the exception of software, and in this industry, EDI's role was salient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts at illustrating how the distribution of power within political parties affects the mixture of goods provided by incumbent governments. Using subnational electoral data from India from 1977 till 2004, the authors argue that if power is centralized within the political party of the incumbent government, then public goods will be provided, and if decentralized targeted goods will be provided. The paper seeks to argue that party organization can be a confounding factor that has remained unconsidered in party voter linkage literature. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The civilization concept is seen as subject to contestation and change. The paper examines four variants of Indian civilization that have developed over time, that of the 18th century Orientalists, of the 19th century Anglicists, and two contemporary variants, an inclusive liberal nationalism and an exclusionary Hindu nationalist variant. The author argues that the definition of a civilization is the result of interaction between civilization "insiders" and "outsiders". The paper traces the struggle among social and political agents for control of the civilizational discourse, and argues that civilizational discourses are fashioned to secure certain ends--such as the elevation or suppression of Indian classical education, the consolidation and defense of imperial rule, or the suppression of minorities. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a theoretical framework for the comparative study of the causes and effects of pursuing rights through legal strategies. It then tests that framework on the results of a two-year, five-country empirical analysis of the determinants and impact of judicial interventions in health and education policy. The data gathering effort was carried out by in-country teams of up to five people in each country, using both archival research to build a database of judicial decisions and interviews to explore the implementation and impact of these judicial decisions. The paper first presents extensive original data on the nature and extent of economic and social (ES) rights litigation in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and South Africa. It then presents comparative data suggesting the conditions that promote the extensive and successful use of legal strategies. Finally, the paper presents preliminary findings on the direct effects of a law-based strategy, as well as the indirect, aggregate social policy impact of the widespread use of legal approaches to extending ES rights. We argue that three elements combine to produce a wave of judicial demands: a) demand side factors (social organization and resources to pursue a legal strategy) must coincide with b) supply side factors (judicial support and a credible judicial system), in c) a policy context that is propitious for judicial intervention because it is prone to policy-making or bureaucratic failures. We further argue that, with significant exceptions, the direct effects of judicial strategies tends to reinforce redistributive inequities, but the indirect effect often extends the benefits far beyond the initial claimants, with positive, equity-enhancing results.The five countries were chosen so as to include common law countries with aggressive ES rights litigation (India, South Africa) and weak or incipient ES rights litigation (Nigeria), and civil law countries with aggressive (Brazil) and weak (Indonesia) litigation. Similarly, two specific issue areas have been selected for analysis in order to provide within-country variation in the effectiveness of litigation as a means of enforcement: although the findings will, we believe, generalize to the entire range of ES rights, the empirical sections will emphasize the rights to health care and education. A key element in the project is the creation of a cross-nationally comparable database detailing the characteristics and outcomes of ES rights court cases (number of cases, likelihood that plaintiffs succeed, individual or collective action, level of court), and an investigation of impact on the ground in a random sample of up to 100 cases in each country. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolving counter-terrorism regime obliges and permits countries to make changes in their domestic policies. It also requires them to cooperate with other states, thereby influencing foreign policies. At the same time, policy-makers in state capitals are trying to mold the global regime so that it fits their projects better. For example, India's policies on terrorism are structured by regime norms, yet, simultaneously, the country is seizing an influential position at this formative moment in the evolution of the counter-terrorism regime. By examining this instance of structure-agency interaction, I demonstrate that while structure can constrain actors' choices, actors can also shape structure. Indian policy-makers leverage the normative bases of the regime in order to modify the evolving regime and forward their preferred policies at home. However, India's policies—and eventually—its identity, are slowly but surely being influenced by the regime.The first section of the paper argues for a co-constitutive approach—that is, viewing the international regime and the individual state as mutually determined. In Section Two, tracing the Indian experience with four regime mechanisms (definition, categorization, institutionalization and enforcement), I show that Indian decision-makers are engaged in the task of reinventing the state's very identity within the regime and the larger international context. Section Three shows the other side of the relationship—India's influence on the regime. By reaching for and deploying normative resources, a relatively weak state like India can create strategic space for maneuver. In Section Four, I suggest that becoming a member of the regime is producing shifts within Indian policy which will eventually change the country's identity itself. The paper concludes with implications for regime theory and for counter-terrorism policies in Section Five. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian state of Punjab suffered a brutal insurgency during the period 1981-1994. At one point in the early 1990s, it seemed that terrorism would overwhelm the security forces of the Indian Union, triggering off its disintegration. Yet within one year, a determined security forces offensive broke the back of the Punjab militancy. The transformation was largely due to the operational acumen of one man: the Sikh police officer charged with combating India's most virulent terrorist movement, KPS Gill. With over 25 years' policing experience in India's disturbed northeastern region, Gill was no stranger to the peculiar situational demands of low intensity conflict. His methods came in for intense criticism by human rights activists. Most of this however, melted away under scrutiny as being either propaganda by terrorist fronts or attempts to exaggerate the typicality of extreme cases. In part, as one Indian leftist writer has noted, critics of Gill's tactics based their accusations on the assumption that a dramatic counterterrorist success like Punjab could only be achieved by repression. Yet, the evidence did not bear out this assumption. More subtle reasons for the transformation were: - the intense use of intelligence for both operational and psychological warfare purposes and, - the co-operative command concept, which availed of the benefits of military firepower while avoiding the inflammatory effect of doing so. This paper aims to examine the substance and experiential origin of Gill's unique approach to counterterrorism. As a civil servant in a democratic state, he lacked the operational leeway that autocracy grants its instruments of repression, yet faced all the other challenges of Third-Worldism. The paper shall elucidate how these challenges were overcome through doctrinal innovation of a kind unseen elsewhere in counterterrorist campaigns, with the notable exception of the Malayan Emergency. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the literature on India has historically held the idea of class politics as of minimal importance, certainly secondary to ethnic politics. Recently, there has been a response wave of literature that has argued that class politics is something that has been overlooked, but is nevertheless evident in India. My paper builds on this latter set of literature and argues that, instead of a more generalized analysis, the best way to study class politics in India is to look at the two states in which it has historically been prevalent: West Bengal and Kerala. Both states have had communist parties that have ostensibly been able to mobilize along class lines and have won numerous elections since independence. Yet, class mobilization appears to be less prevalent in all other Indian states. My paper thus seeks to analyze this following question: why have communist parties been able to mobilize along class lines in West Bengal and Kerala and not in other Indian states? Though a wide range of authors have studied either West Bengal or Kerala independently, there have been very few studies that bundle both cases together - despite their similarities. Moreover, most existent explanations may be able to explain why West Bengal and Kerala have seen class mobilization, but they rarely try to explain its absence in other Indian states. Though my research is still in its preliminary stages, I have a three-part explanation for the rise of communism and class-based mobilization in West Bengal and Kerala that attempts to both bundle these two cases together and explain why they are unique as compared to the rest of India. First, I argue that the Congress Party - India's most dominant political party, which won seven of the first eight parliamentary elections after independence - was exceptionally weak in West Bengal and Kerala, which opened up the political opportunity structure in those two states for other political parties. The communists struck quickly in both states and established themselves as a key early player. Second, it argues that the communist party in both of these states was an exceptionally well-run organization that mimicked the ability of the Congress Party to build coalitions and unite voters along class lines. Third, it argues that the long-run success of these parties is due to their developmental policies that expanded social welfare programs and created self-sustaining constituencies and an environment that allowed for their continued electoral success. In the remainder of the paper, I attempt to contrast the development of communism in West Bengal and Kerala with several failed attempts to develop communism in other Indian states. Furthermore, my paper also peripherally relates to the literature on ethnic conflict, which in regards to India has long held the belief that ethnicity trumps class. Through studying the states of West Bengal and Kerala, I will show two cases in which the reverse is true, thus reaffirming the need to reassess the role of class politics in India. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the literature in political science greets regional political parties with skepticism and suspicion. Prevailing explanations of the origins of regional parties rely primarily on regional economic or cultural grievances and sub-state nationalism. Given grievance- and nationalism-based explanations, scholars tend to view regional parties as evidence of failures in nation-building and vehicles for sub-state nationalism and potentially secession. This paper questions the conventional wisdom on regional parties by arguing that previous explanations fail to provide a convincing account of the emergence of regional parties in a polity in which voters do not cast their votes on the basis of parties' polity proposals.Instead, this paper suggests the rule of a law is the crucial variable determining how voters will formulate their vote choice and how politicians will behave. Under weak rule of law, when voters do not expect that a country's laws will be fairly or uniformly enforced, voters do not formulate their votes in an effort to influence policy-making; they cast their votes in order to influence policy-implementation. As a result, voters focus primarily on the characteristics of individual candidates in order to infer which types of voters a politician will favor if elected. Under conditions of weak rule of law and non-policy voting, I identify two conditions that give rise to regional parties: the concentration of politically-salient candidate characteristics (very often ethnicity) and frequent coalition government. The dispersion or concentration of particular politically-salient individual characteristics determines whether a party can adopt a single, coherent mobilization strategy and still appeal to a national audience (in the case of dispersed characteristics). Meanwhile, the presence of coalition government allows small parties to extract power and resources, thereby removing a strong disincentive for politicians in small, regional parties who are otherwise excluded from government under single-party majority governments.Together therefore, these two variables explain the strength (or weakness) of regional parties in weak rule of law societies. The implication of this argument is that when rule of law is weak, the success of regional parties should not necessarily be interpreted as a mandate for autonomy/secession or a rejection of a broader national identity. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines the relative impacts of economic growth and goodgovernance on human development (HD) performance in the sub-national statesof India from the 1980s to the early 2000s to test whether the strong and positiveimpact good governance has had on HD in the Indian state of Kerala is anomalousor typical. The paper begins with a bounded and theoretically developedconceptualization of good governance to cover the three core dimensions ofleadership priorities, state capacity, and policy implementation. Measures of thesethree core dimensions taken from recent field study in India are then compiled intoa good governance index suited to the specific context of federal India's subnationalstates over the last three decades. Employing cross-sectional regressionanalysis and incorporating checks for robustness, we find that in almost everycase good governance explains more of human development outcomes (ineducation, health, and longevity) than does economic growth, per capitainvestment, or per capita incomes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a comparative study of Fujimori of Peru and Chandrababu Naidu of India, and their redistributive programs. The paper traces similarities between the two leaders policy strategies, and narrates the experience of the implementation of their respective development programs - FONCODES and Velugu. The paper argues that 'neo populists' like Fujimori and Chandrababu Naidu are capable of reaching the poor, but run the risk of making the poor worse off. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EXCISING POWER FROM MEDIATIONThe distrust of power and not pride has been the primary reason for rejection of international arbitration or mediation in the India-Pakistan conflict by India. There are many dimensions to this conflict from elite interests to historical cultural conflicts between communities. However the constant deceptions employed by the British during colonialism in incorporating territory after territory while offering to mediate between warring parties, has led to deep suspicion of western powers in ant mediation. The spectre of East India Company is raised quite often both in uniting the country and in warding off international interests, including excessive inward investment. India suspects that mediation by United States or its allies will be conducted to serve American interests primarily rather than South Asian interests. It is in this context that indigenous efforts appear to be succeeding better than international diplomacy in realistic resolution rather than just management. The paper looks at the success of Gurdwara Diplomacy and its possible ripple and aggregate effect on bringing peace in the region. The paper suggests that conflict resolution can best succeed when the mediating precipitant or party is devoid of power politics. It also proposes mediation to look at lateral approaches to construct a strategic aggregated opportunities to conflict resolution. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South Asian states are generally more prone to innumerable dangers such as insurgency, terrorism and other related issues due to their instable socio-economic and political systems, underdevelopment and their vulnerable geo-strategic location. For instance, in Nepal, the terrorist activities of the Maoist insurgents have been aggravated since the last decade, while the dissident military organizations from Jammu and Kashmir are constantly involved in terrorist activities all over India. In the south, the LTTE and other military organizations are also engaged in terrorizing the small island. Bangladesh too is going through similar troubles with the emergence of the Islamic fundamentalist force. In Pakistan, the Taliban dissidents from Afghanistan have become more active and are creating problems for the government. Bhutan is not far behind. The presence of dissident military organizations from Assam like, ULFA, (United Liberation Front of Assom) and other north-eastern states of India in that country have created problems for both, India and Bhutan. The basic demand of these organizations is independence from India. They are fighting against the Indian Army, the Government of India (GOI) as well as the Government of Assam and its Police force. So, to effectively counter the secessionist challenge from Assamese militants and their hideouts in Indo-Bhutan border, India and Bhutan have initiated a Joint Indo-Bhutan Army (JIBA) operation in December 2003.In the above context, the present paper investigates the following points that need a careful analysis. The implications of the 'Operation Flush Out' conducted by Joint Indo-Bhutan Army on the policymakers in Bhutan and their approach towards Indo-Bhutan relations. The setbacks Bhutan will have to face in encountering insurgency to maintain its independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty, considering the fact that it is a small, weak and landlocked state, sandwiched between two powerful neighbours i.e. India and China.The ULFA militants are compelling Bhutan to provide them a safe sanctuary and have demanded a soft policy towards them, in keeping with the protection of human rights which they allege are being violated by the Government of India and Assam. The present paper tries to critically examine the diplomatic and strategic response to these demands from the RGB (Royal Government of Bhutan) during the critical period in the region. In this study the analytical method is being followed, for making a comparative analysis of measures adopted by other countries of South Asia to encounter the insurgencies and deduce certain conclusions about what can be learnt from each other to resolve this common threat. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last decade the two largest democracies of the world, i.e., India and US have been constantly coming closer. Advent of satellite channels and beginning of economic liberalization program in India has generated a keen interest in U.S. affairs. US has become the hottest destination for Indian software professionals. Sociologists have been expressing deep concern regarding Americanization of Indian youth because of channels like MTV and Hollywood movies. 911 attacks on US and ensuing war on terror have been extensively covered and scrutinized by Indian media. Indian media has a love-hate relationship with US. On the one hand Indian media admires American democracy, entrepreneurship and rule of law, on the other it is portraying war on terror as hegemonistic design intended to turn international politics completely unipolar. While deepening commercial ties and joint military exercises between the two countries are being welcomed by all sections of media, certain quarters are vehemently critical of US attack and subsequent occupation of Iraq. The reason Indian government dithered, debated and ultimately decided not to send troops to Iraq can be attributed to media?s vociferous opposition. Bush administration?s unstinted support to Musharraf government in Pakistan is being termed by Indian media as the most glaring example of ?double standards? in war against terror. Indian media accuses that in spite of having full knowledge of terrorist camps in Pakistan, Bush administration has refused to take penal actions against Pakistan. This paper will deal with how media has covered America?s war on terror and what impact it has had on Indian public opinion and decision making process. The perception of Indian media regarding the burgeoning American hegemony in new world order will also be analyzed in this paper. The paper will make suggestions regarding what role media can play in bringing these two countries together in their mutual fight against terror. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes up the question: how did India?s economic liberalization affect the state?s decisions about nuclear weapons and disarmament? While it focuses on the India case which I have studied in depth, it critiques the general Liberal account of the political economy of nuclear development. This account posits that internationally-oriented actors resist nuclear ?acceleration? out of fear of adverse international reactions, or because they oppose the concentration of resources in statist and non-productive uses. The paper shows that a comprehensive conception of national security, a state-led economic strategy, the compulsions of the global market itself, and a fractured and inconsistent international sanctions regime alleviated such concerns in India. Unlike Realist accounts which argue that economic factors were irrelevant in explaining India?s decision, this argument takes the entire economic context?particularly elite beliefs?into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the constitutional ideology of the social revolution in the context of liberal economic reforms in India. While India?s new economic policies emphasize the benefits of competition and free markets her constitutional preferences remain embedded in legal provisions and traditions that favor social engineering in the name of economic, political and social equality. As liberalization as well as the global marketplace have become firmly established in the rhetoric and practice of elite politics, the political momentum towards economic change falls short of the numerical majorities to amend the Constitution. Consequently, India?s Supreme Court judges are taking centre-stage in the field of economic liberalization, having the power to either stall or accelerate the reform process by means of judicial review. Unrestrained by the political obstacles of democratic politics the court has sketched a dialectical reform of the constitutional political economy exercising judicial restraint as the means and modes of production are freed from state control and exposing judicial activism as the judges advocate the interweaving of the distribution and consumption of wealth with the goals of the social revolution. Based on an analysis of judicial policies as well as constitutional reform debates the paper maintains that the constitutional ideology of the social revolution acts as an important, if not constructive, constraint and guideline as India?s policies are shifting from "empirical gradualist" (Morris-Jones) socialism to empirical gradualist liberalization and globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broadly defined, affirmative action encompasses any measure that allocates goods ? such as admission into universities, jobs, promotions, public contracts, business loans, and rights to buy and sell land ? on the basis of membership in a designated group, for the purpose of increasing the proportion of members of that group in the relevant labor force, entrepreneurial class, or university student population, where they are currently underrepresented as a result of past or present discrimination. The programs involved vary substantially across countries, regarding the identification of their intended beneficiaries (ethnic, national, or racial groups held to be economically or socially disadvantaged, aboriginal peoples, women, people with disabilities, war veterans?), the form of the programs involved (quota/non-quota), the level of the legal norms from which they derive (constitutional, legislative, administrative), and their domain of implementation (whether restricted to the public sector or not). Drawing from previous research on the United States (« Judicial Uses of Subterfuge: Affirmative Action Reconsidered », Political Science Quarterly, 18 (3), 2003, p. 411-436) and France (« Affirmative Action at Sciences Po », French Politics, Culture, and Society, 20 (3), 2002, p. 52-64), the paper will compare affirmative action programs in the United States, India, Malaysia and South Africa, considering each of these four parameters and the relations between them. It will focus both on the intended results and on the different side effects of the policies and of the justifications advanced on their behalf. In particular, I shall argue that in India and Malaysia, reducing the inequality in the distribution of social goods between the different groups involved is not conceived as partaking of the more utopian project of reducing the saliency of group boundaries within the nation-state. Giving communities their proportional share of social benefits is not supposed to lead to the blurring of the lines that keep them separate from each other in private, non-allocative spheres. In the United States and in South Africa, on the other hand, the connection between affirmative action policies equalizing patterns of economic distribution among various ascriptive groups and the ideal of societal integration is a much stronger one. This is reflected in the definition of the social outcome whose attainment would justify the eventual termination of affirmative action programs. In India and Malaysia, the proportionality criterion provides an obvious « focal point » in this respect, generally acknowledged as such. In the United States ? and, to a lesser extent, in South Africa ?, proportional representation is emphatically rejected as a distributive principle, even though it arguably operates covertly at the policymaking level, by providing the benchmark against which « discrepancies » and « deficiencies » will be identified and compensated for. Last but not least, the paper will distinguish among affirmative action regimes according to their degree of internal differentiation, attempting to account for the highly specific configuration found in India, where members of the group generally considered as the most disadvantaged ? the Untouchables ? are being granted some kind of preferential treatment also in relation to the policy?s other beneficiaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines linguistic and cultural hegemony and resistance during the period of globalization at the beginning of the 20th century. The premise is that such an examination can broaden our conceptualization of contemporary linguistic and cultural globalization: Were the cultural implications of the earlier period of globalization fundamentally different from or nearly the same as those of today?s globalization? The paper first identifies the nature of cultural hegemony in the early 20th century. Ranajit Guha, one of the founders of Subaltern Studies, has argued that British colonial rule in India exemplified cultural domination rather than hegemony. The British never penetrated the Indian cultural zone of autonomy, as Partha Chatterjee has put it. Yet by the nineteen-teens, Mahatma Gandhi was clearly concerned that a preference for the English language was widespread amongst Indian nationalists. Gandhi?s admonition against British linguistic hegemony was, however, constrained by the local language politics of North India. The renown historians, John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson, have suggested in their seminal studies of imperialism that resistance to colonial rule is patterned according to local culture and environment rather than to imperial practices. Similarly, cultural and linguistic imperialist patterns may well be determined by local politics in the metropole. By comparing resistance to differing linguistic policies and practices in the early 20th century, the paper weighs the importance of the local and global contexts of cultural hegemony and resistance. For purposes of comparison, the focus of the paper will be on the English language in British India and French linguistic hegemony during the same period of rapid economic globalization and liberalization in the early 20th century. The paper concludes with a longitudinal comparison of this early era of globalization with linguistic globalization of today, the latter outlined in my recent book, The Local Politics of Global English: Case Studies in Linguistic Globalization (Lexington, November 2003). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the dynamics of livestock policy reforms in two Indian states, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. Livestock policy reforms have been shaped by the intersection of domestic politics and power relations, international actors?especially foreign governments and development organizations, and international trade regimes. The international policy environment and global trade regime has set the context for India?s market-oriented reforms, but it is largely domestic political leaders, institutions, bureaucratic structures, and organized interests that have shaped the form and extent of reform in this sector. Marked differences in the reform trajectory of different livestock sectors in the neighboring states of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa show how domestic politics can shape the implementation of global reforms. This paper focuses on the politics of reform in the large ruminant (cattle, buffalo) and animal health and breeding subsectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: During the transformation of formerly planned economies, the development and regulation of securities finance is an important and poorly understand process. For the governments involved securitization - the creation of securities and the shift of financial assets from banking into securities- has been a complex political challenge. For students of political economy, securities finance can seem a particularly opaque sphere in which the interests, incentives, and important institutions are often unclear. This paper presents a framework for analyzing the political dynamics of securities finance in developing and transitional economies. The distinction between equity and debt on the one hand, and the distinction between issuers of securities and investors in securities on the other hand, together create a useful framework - the asset-class/financial-position matrix - for political analysis of the creation, exchange, and use securities. Based on documentary, quantitative, and interview-based evidence collected during field research between 1997- 2001 the paper deploys this matrix to explore the politics of securitization through case studies of stock exchange development in China and India. I find that the autonomy of central-state-elites within the dominant coalition and the structure of property-rights help explain varying outcomes in the governance of securities finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper looks at the transforming role of judiciary in India, Nepal and Pakistan in the context of changing political context marked by increased pluralism in the political arena. The central thesis of this paper is that a greater competition in the political arena marked by alternation of power and lack of overwhelming electoral success of any one party supports indpendence of judiciary allowing it to assert its role in adjudication of controversies involving constitutional questions as well as issues pertaining to transparency and accountability of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores recent U.S. initiatives to conclude arms control agreements as well as confidence-building measures (CBMs) between India and Pakistan and assesses the prospects for progress in these areas. After U.S.-led negotiations in the wake of the 1998 India-Pakistan nuclear tests, India and Pakistan expressed renewed interest in the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the Fissile Materials Cutoff Treaty (FMCT). In contrast, U.S. efforts to convince India and Pakistan to adopt the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and to disarm have failed. Since January 2001, the Bush administration has continued to promote CBMs and Nuclear Risk Reduction Measures (NRRMs) between the two countries. Since 2002, the administration considered offering missile-defenses to Pakistan and India, which might improve conditions for arms control and reduction. Indian officials have expressed interest in missile defense and noted the links with arms reduction. However, Pakistan and its ally, China, suspect that U.S. and Indian missile defenses are intended to neutralize their deterrents, which could open the door to an accelerated arms race and even preemptive action. A contradiction explored in the paper is that, while the United States tries to negotiate arms control agreements in South Asia, it has moved away from the ABM treaty, the CTBT, and other arms control measures. Another issue is what the United States can achieve as a mediator through arms control and CBMs, such as cooperative aerial monitoring, a more rigorous ‘hot line,’ and a cooperative threat reduction (CTR) program. A related issue that is explored is the connection between arms control and missile defenses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I explore the pattern of economic reform at the sub-national level in India: why some states have moved in the direction of market reforms while others have not (if any) in the face of systemic pressures towards reform coming from the central government and the international environment. Furthermore, I am also interested in the question of the patterns of reform in those cases where apparently similar policy outcomes have occurred. This paper, thus, aims to illuminate the dynamics of policy change in ?federal systems,? through an in-depth analysis of the Indian case. In particular, I will argue that 1) there are a number of factors pushing all states in the same direction (towards ?reform?), namely, political and economic pressures from the centre and the private sector, as well as a widespread resource shortage triggered principally by an earlier period of intensified intra-state competition and 2) variation in ?reform orientation? among the states can be partially traced to the political strategy and degree of influence at the centre of state elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the politics of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) between 1996 and 2002. First, it begins with an explanation of the challenge that Hindu nationalism posed from the 1980s onwards to India’s multinational democratic State that evolved following Independence. Second, it argues that to explain the official moderation of the BJP in the formal political arena since 1996 requires us to examine the centrist logic of the Indian democratic regime: the effects of its plurality-rule electoral system, parliamentary form of cabinet government and federal party system. Third, however, it demonstrates the ways in which the BJP has circumvented these institutional constraints in various realms and manipulated the terms of political discourse to its own partisan advantage. In doing so, the paper elucidates the strengths and limitations of political analyses that focus on the design and impact of political institutions, in the Indian context and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine the construction of data sets, and in particular the incentive structures which shape the type and quality of information. The paper is divided into four sections. We begin with a brief outline of some problems with existing data sets and a discussion of why it is important to address these problems. Next we briefly consider non-incentive based reasons for problems with data sets. In the third and fourth sections, we discuss incentive structures which we believe raise serious questions regarding the integrity of data in social science research: the incentive structures among the producers of data ? those who collect and collate the data; and the incentive structures among the consumers ? the users of the data, the academic and the policy making community. We present evidence from a variety of contexts but especially Africa, China, India and Russia and to make this case. Check author’s web site for an updated version of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do national ruling parties benefit in elections from enacting anti-poverty programs, or are programs captured by local ruling parties with administrative control? This is an open puzzle in developing countries, in which democratic accountability mechanisms are thought to be weak. This paper estimates the electoral effects of India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, one of the largest anti-poverty programs in the world. Difference in differences analyses, based on the phased roll-out of NREGA between 2006 and 2008, suggest that NREGA improved the performance of the national ruling party in state elections, even in opposition-controlled states. By contrast, the program did not impact prolocal incumbent party voting. The findings shed light on accountability in federal democracies and show that national ruling parties possess significant electoral incentives to enact anti-poverty programs, in spite of the risk of local capture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about counterfactual possibilities associated with financial property rights under Colonialism, prepared for presentation at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA) in Washington DC, in 2014 is presented. Topics discussed include property rights literature with reference to financial systems, emergence of institutionalized financial systems and Indian currency problems.

How does democratic politics affect infant mortality? The bulk of existing research has debated whether democracies have lower infant mortality than nondemocracies. The variation in infant mortality within democratic and non-democratic regimes can account for this controversy, making it imperative to understand how within regime dynamics shape infant mortality. This paper attempts to do so by examining how three core attributes of democracy: political representation, citizens' participation, and electoral competition affect infant mortality within one democracy - India. I argue that higher levels of political representation, citizens' participation, and electoral competition provide political incentives for elected representatives to perform better, thereby enhancing welfare outcomes and reducing infant mortality. The theory is tested by using an error correction model on an original times-series dataset from 28 Indian states between 1981 and 2009. The findings show that measures of political representation and citizens' participation work to reduce infant mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early 2000s, middle-class associations have contested local elections in at least five major cities in India. This represents a significant departure in Indian politics where the middle class had increasingly withdrawn from electoral politics and instead influenced public policy through activism in associational life. This development also represents a blurring of boundaries between our current understanding of civil society, traditionally characterized by its "apolitical" nature, and political society that has largely remained the domain of the poor. Based on five months of fieldwork in Delhi and drawing on evidence from other metropolitan cities, this paper attempts to understand the factors that have led to the rise of middle class neighborhood associations and their subsequent advent into formal politics. This understanding could be a first step in conceptualizing the nature of the middle class political movement in India. The unique institutional environment of the capital and a government program that institutionalized citizen participation through these very associations makes Delhi a particularly interesting case. I find that neighborhood associations with pre-existing networks within government agencies were more likely to remain apolitical, while the ones without these networks sought to become part of the government machinery through electoral channels. Further, decentralization policies instituted by the federal and the State Government have been instrumental in this change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of the various types of lobbies in Washington, D.C. scholars probably know less about the lobbies representing the interests of foreign nation than any category. There have been just a handful of studies that have examined the foreign lobbies with most of the work done of the Israeli lobby and the Old China Lobby of the 1950s and 1960s. Mearsheimer and Walt's 2007 book on The Israel Lobby produced a firestorm in American politics over whether that lobby had an undue influence on U.S. foreign policy. Other academic work has mentioned the Cuban, Armenian and Irish lobbies as particularly powerful. But, very little is known about the many lobbies in our capitol that represent foreign interests. Other than the Old China Lobby ((1920-1973) and a couple of studies of the Japan Lobby of the 1980s, Asian lobbies have been generally ignored. Very little is known about the lobbies that represent the rising powers of Asia: China, India and South Korea. Probably the biggest story of the past three decades has been the rise of China to great power status. Nations on the rise sooner or later understand that they need effective representation in American politics as the political, economic and security issues begin to mount in frequency and significance. In this paper, we focus on the history and the rise of three of these rising Asian lobbies: the New China Lobby, the India Lobby and the Korean Lobbies. We will close with a discussion on how the foreign nations' lobbies and the American ethnic lobbies work together to represent foreign national interests and what elements combine to make for a significant foreign lobby. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the second Bush administration, the nonproliferation norm was applied to Iran and North Korea, but not towards liberal democratic states with which it shared security and economic interests (e.g., India, Israel). In practice, this policy posture amounts to an assertion of a conditional right of states to possess nuclear weapons, where the jointly sufficient conditions are that (1) the state is a liberal democracy that (2) faces an imminent or likely nuclear threat from an illiberal, "rogue" state. However, Daniel Deudney has argued in Bounding Power (2007) that nuclear arsenals are "intrinsically despotic." In this paper, I explore two questions: (1) what are the implications of reserving the right of possessing nuclear weapons to liberal democratic states, and (2) do nuclear weapons present an unacceptable moral hazard to liberal democratic institutions or practices (e.g., democratic deliberation, constitutional checks and balances, legal due process, human rights)? Is the price of securing liberal democracy by nuclear means the very liberties that these weapons are seeking to secure? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil wars are the most common form of warfare in the world, yet the question of their causes remains not only under-researched, but in a state of confusion. The authors of the "greed-grievance" dichotomy have since written that this dichotomy should be abandoned, joining a long list of scholars calling for a theory which specifies the interaction of economic and social-psychological factors. This paper offers such a theory, but also delineates two questions in the causes of civil war onset, distinguishing the social-structural question of what creates the potential for war along a particular identity fault line from the temporal question of why war breaks out at a particular point in time. The former is addressed by applying the sociological concept of overlapping vs. cross-cutting cleavages to the relationship between identity divisions and economic and political divisions, with the potential for civil war arising from a situation of overlapping social cleavages. The temporal question focuses on the role of catalysts such as economic decline and regime change in escalating that potential in the buildup to civil war. Then, a third causal stage is discussed, focusing on whether the extent of violence meets definitional casualty thresholds to qualify as a civil war, as a function of government response to the outbreak of violence. Evidence is provided from four cases. Ivory Coast and Yugoslavia both represent clear examples of overlapping social cleavages, yet both were heralded for their stability and relative prosperity for decades before they were torn apart, thus demonstrating that overlapping cleavages are necessary but not sufficient without the temporal role of catalysts such as economic decline. Haiti illustrates a near-total lack of social cleavages, thus its abundance of negative catalysts has never resulted in a civil war, demonstrating that negative catalysts are not sufficient without an underlying social structure of overlapping social cleavages. The case of India's Hindu-Muslim cleavage illustrates the structure of cross-cutting cleavages and its ability to mitigate conflict which has been to the brink of civil war many times. Finally, the implications of this theory for further research and for policy are discussed. It is emphasized that existing measures of inequality tell us nothing about how inequality is distributed among identity groups, thus quantifying this process cannot be achieved through reduced measurement error, nor through an interaction term combining gini coefficients with measures of ethnic fractionalization. New measures will be required. Further, this theory supports criticism of power-sharing agreements, as such arrangements entrench the structure of overlapping social cleavages, giving permanence to the potential for civil war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty years ago, Myron Weiner described the laggard condition of mass education in India in a groundbreaking book, The Child and the State in India. Relative to other countries with similar economies, India trailed across almost every single educational measure. Weiner ascribed much of India's shortcomings in education to lack of governmental support from the leaders at the Centre, leaders whom he suspected would always resist improving mass education. Since the publication of Weiner's book, however, governmental support for Indian education has improved dramatically. In this paper, I examine what influences national-level government support for social development in the developing world. I do so by examining why Indian national-level government officials have shown a serious commitment to mass education reform when they have historically refused to do so. More than rising incomes, ethnic considerations, or pressures from domestic business, I find evidence that international factors - such as foreign aid and the demands from international institutions such as the World Bank - have played a critical role in bringing education to the forefront of Indian politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late twenties, Jawaharlal Nehru calls for India's complete independence rather than Dominion Status within the British Commonwealth. Nehru argues that India ought to be a free and democratic republic based on popular sovereignty and recognized by other states as an equally independent state. To achieve these ends, he calls for the creation of a representative and democratically elected Constituent Assembly to establish a constitution for an independent India. This paper explores the idea of the republic in Nehru's political thought at the Indian founding. The reasons for which Nehru prescribes a republic have been somewhat overlooked. First, there is historical precedent that republics have established complete independence from external (imperial) domination and individual freedom from absolute rule within the state. This republican view of freedom is influenced by Montesquieu's normative doctrine of the separation and balance of powers. Second, the idea of republic allows Nehru to deal with the princely Indian States and to assert India's unity. Finally, the creation of an Indian national identity over and above partial identities is facilitated by the notion of a democratic republic that incorporates individuals on equal footing and creates a constitutional and free system of government. Nehru therefore offers an example of how Western discourses can be appropriated and creatively redeployed to respond to local problems, and in doing so contribute new insights to larger discussions on the meaning of freedom and republicanism more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the role of intra-periphery rivalry in conflicts over sub-national ethnic autonomy. Theories of these conflicts focus on the clash between a capital that prefers centralization and a periphery that demands self-rule. I use polling data from Thailand and legislative data from India to show that the strongest opposition to territorial ethnic demands comes from other groups in the periphery. This opposition translates into relatively hardline and stable opposition to autonomy demands. By contrast, interests elsewhere in the country are likely to have more moderate and unstable opinions regarding repression versus accommodation of such movements. Territorial ethnic conflict is best understood as a three-way clash between competing groups in the periphery and a center interested in minimizing the costs of retaining and governing the periphery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does regime type explain differences in economic development? Pakistan and India constitute an ideal comparative set given longstanding differences between the two with regard to democratic practice. Yet, the pattern of economic growth is complicated: Pakistan's development outpaces India's in the first two decades after Independence, with divergence in economic success only becoming evident after the 1990s. Further, the two countries have mirrored one another with regard to the formal institutions and policies of economic governance. How can we understand such patterns? In this paper, I argue that differential trajectories are a consequence of variations in the specific articulations of excluded groups against the distributional consequences of development in the late 1960s and 1970s, and differences in perception of stability after the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, where rigid social norms limit women's autonomy, attempts to legislate equal rights are rarely successful. Moreover, limited data on the interaction of legal implementation and socio-economic structures makes it nearly impossible to measure the direct effect of progressive law and its indirect effect on attitudes and welfare. This paper uses regression discontinuity design to capture the effect of a law implemented at exogenous points in time across India -the Hindu Succession Amendment Act- which equalized women's inheritance rights. Additional regression analysis allows measurement of legal reform's indirect effect on women's welfare. Analysis is based on two forms of data: (1) Nationally representative panel data collected across 17 Indian states from 1971 until 2006/8 by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER)'s Rural Economic and Demographic Survey (REDS), and (2) Qualitative field research based on interviews with 850 women and their husbands in two districts of Andhra Pradesh to identify appropriate causal hypotheses and interpret the results of quantitative analysis. Whereas elite capture theory suggests legal reform of women's traditionally-weak inheritance rights should be ineffective, preliminary findings suggest the law is effective in increasing women's perceived ownership of household land, women's self-reported bargaining power in the household, and women's probability of inheriting land. The law has a very limited substantive impact on the equality of women's land shares, but a significant welfare impact: households with an HSAA beneficiary spend more on women's goods, medical care, and children's education. As expected by norm-based theories of legal effectiveness, household norms are significant predictors of women's probability of inheriting land as well as the equality of women's land shares. However, norms' effect runs counter to theoretical predictions: parents who support conservative norms of (son's) care of elderly parents are significantly more likely than other parents to give daughters land and to equalize daughters land shares. Parents who maintain illiberal norms that restrict daughter's decision-making power are more likely to give land inheritance to all children. However, elite capture theory does explain an important finding: where women organize their own interest groups, they are more likely to benefit from the HSAA. We can conclude that progressive law significantly improves women's property rights and welfare, but its effectiveness is maximized by either working in tandem with conservative social norms, or by generating new social networks to circumvent conservative norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Which actions by governments stoke or pacify an insurgency? Scholarly research on the topic has often been relegated to the study of this question at the country level, comparing across large units and rarely looking inside the state. Our research focuses on the primary actors in a contest for authority within a state: the government, dissidents, and the population. In contrast to most previous work, we tackle the difficult question of how population dynamics affect the rise and fall of insurgency. We investigate the question in the context of India and its states and territories. India is particularly well suited to this research as it presently experiences terrorism, insurgency, ethnic conflict, riots and other actions that threaten the stability of the state. Using an agent-based model (ABM), geographic information systems (GIS), data on public sentiment, and events data, we address this question from a multidisciplinary approach. The agent-based model formalizes the interactions of states, dissidents, and the population, the GIS framework allows for actual demographic and geographic information to influence this interaction, and the events data and sentiment data allow us to test empirical implications from the model directly. As the NSF-Minerva grant is midstream, this paper reports initial work to couple the ABM and empirical analysis. We expect the results to have important implications for the study of political violence, order, and state-building. The approach is policy relevant, furthermore, and can be adapted to other regions and countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why are some challenges to the territorial unity of democratic states more tractable than others? Two main explanations have been advanced in the literature addressing the causes of secessionism. One focuses on the institutional reforms and government policies adopted in response to sub-national mobilization. Another focuses on the characteristics, in particular the ethnic identity, of the potentially secessionist sub-national groups. This paper analyzes the trajectory of 180 political organizations that demanded autonomy or secession in India between 1952 and 2002. The main finding of the analysis is that territorial demands put forward by organizations abiding by a religious fundamentalist worldview proved much more resilient over time than identical demands advanced by non-religious organizations. Leveraging both sub-national and cross-time variation within the important country case of India, the analysis emphasizes the importance for the dynamics of domestic territorial conflict of variables that generally receive less attention in broader comparative analyses, such as the type of ethnic and religious identity mobilized and the effect of political organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a research paper which tries to analyze causes and mechanisms behind the democratic peace, with reference to the Copenhagen School's securitization theory and concept of the democratic identity dynamics within the public. It focuses on the U.S. President Richard Nixon Administration's efforts to deal with the possibility of armed conflict with India in 1971.

The article presents a research paper which focuses on the delegation of powers within a federal system and the impact of institutional design on governance in a federal parliamentary system like India. It analyzes a non-European political system, with deep European roots, and discusses how one constitutionally-based rule, known as "President's Rule," allows Indian parliament to have political and executive control over the entire federal system.

This paper examines how well the concept of "strategic culture" explains the tendency for India's foreign policy to lag behind its rapidly expanding economic interests. Realist analyses of Indian foreign policy and security strategy tend to find that the country is not living up to its potential. This leads to a consideration of strategic culture as an explanatory variable for India's suboptimal performance. The strategic culture aspects of political military culture (civil-military relations) and military culture (martial traditions of the armed forces) tend to point towards a strategic culture that has been shaped by civilian politicians and bureaucrats. The dominance of civilians and general exclusion of the military from decision-making has hindered India from becoming a power that regularly uses the military as an instrument of policy. The factor of domestic strategic culture (including attitudes towards the use of violence and the domestic political order) explains the short-term focus of Indian leaders and the lack of strategic vision. Structural factors, such as the entrenched foreign affairs and defense bureaucracy, produce a narrow and procedural focus and prevent the development of strategic analyses and planning. In conclusion, the strategic culture concept appears to play a significant role in explaining India's suboptimal foreign policy and security strategy. On the basis of those findings, one must expect the India-US relationship to move forward slowly on a number of issues and on future interactions. The possibility of an eventual alliance between the two powers is unlikely given India's strategic culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines categories and global inequalities through a case of confrontation with colonialism. Much of Edmund Burke's Parliamentary career was consumed with problems of British imperialism. The case of India is particularly interesting in that it involved the interaction of Western and non-Western cultures. Burke's work in this area sheds light on at least two fundamental political questions of perpetual—and growing—concern: First, how does one's categorization of the 'other' shape political interaction and define its terms, particularly in cases in which one party has a monopoly on power? Second, what is the relationship between cultural particularity and universal norms? How, consequently, should differences be addressed, particularly in multicultural situations? These two fundamental questions are intimately related, as is demonstrated by the case of Burke's encounter with Indian policy. India's governors, and many in Britain, maintained that Asian regimes were necessarily tyrannical, and that Asian populations required tyrannical rule. The exercise of "arbitrary" power in India was thus explicitly justified. To counter this view, Burke studied the Koran, contrasted India's venerable culture with Britain's "insect origin of yesterday," and explained that in a healthy tradition-bound society there is no justification for "arbitrary" power. The ideals of justice, mercy, and the rule of law are present, even if they are imperfectly realized. One may not categorize Asians as fundamentally different from Europeans in order to justify their oppression. This leaves Burke with the thornier problem of how to govern the culturally different Indians justly. Burke famously denounces "geographic morality;" the principles and ideals which apply in Britain must apply in every place the British govern. But, paradoxically, Burke also promotes legislation to prohibit the application of British law in India. This is partly because British law was not designed for India; its attempted application in such different circumstances therefore creates opportunities for the abuse of power. It is also because any imposition of a strange body of law by an outside power—even if those laws are actually more just and benign than the rule to which most of the population has been subjected—would seem tyrannical to that population. Burke does not maintain that all cultures, laws, or regimes are "equal" in all respects—we can legitimately endeavor to make differentiations—but that universal ideals are bound up in culturally particular practices, and are not necessarily advanced by the attempted imposition of a uniform global order. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]