GOVERNANCE and POLITICAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP in INDIA: CASE STUDIES of GUJARAT and BIHAR By
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GOVERNANCE AND POLITICAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN INDIA: CASE STUDIES OF GUJARAT AND BIHAR by Snigdha Dewal A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of George Mason University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Public Policy Committee: Hilton L. Root, Chair Jack A. Goldstone Qing Tian E. Vayunandan, External Reader Kenneth J. Button, Program Director Mark J. Rozell, Dean Date: Spring Semester 2016 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Governance and Political Entrepreneurship in India: Case Studies of Gujarat and Bihar A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at George Mason University by Snigdha Dewal Master of Arts Jamia Millia Islamia, 2007 Director: Hilton L. Root, Professor School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs Spring Semester 2016 George Mason University Fairfax, VA This work is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noderivs 3.0 unported license. ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my grandparents, Dr. O.S. Dewal and Mrs. Rama Dewal, and Thakur Prithvi Singh Bhada and Mrs. Shobha Bhada. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people who made this dissertation possible. I am grateful to my parents, Dr. O.P. Dewal and Gunbala Dewal for their love and support. My extended family, including Anand and Sanjay Roharia and Shashank Dewal, for being there in every way. I would like to thank my friend Nandini Bhardwaj for being an invaluable source of strength and for believing I would do this even on days when I did not. I would like to thank my friend Rashmeet Kaur for her faith. I am grateful to Gunajit Kalita for help in the fieldwork in India and for his comments on my thesis. I would like to thank Dr. Deb Kusum Das for his encouragement and for being a mentor over the years. I would also like to thank my support system of friends in the US for their help and valuable inputs. Amit Patel has been a constant soundboard for ideas and provided valuable feedback. Anamaria Berea, for her never say die spirit and patience in listening to my ideas. Katerina Passa gave a lot of her time to hear my ideas and made my life in the last few moth of writing a lot simpler by her help and generosity. My friends Neha Sharma, Uma Kelekar, Nakul Kumar and Rama Godavarti provided valuable feedback and help in the final months of research and writing. I want to thank Parth Shah, Amit Chandra and the rest of the team at the Center for Civil Society, New Delhi, for giving me an excellent work environment to focus on my writing. I am extremely grateful to all my interviewees for their valuable inputs and time, which made this research possible. I am also grateful to Sanjay Gaden, Amitesh Sufi, Avinash Jha and Manash Neong for invaluable help in logistics and setting up the interviews during the field visits. And finally I am grateful to my committee of Prof Hilton Root, Prof Jack Goldstone and Prof Qing Tian, for standing with me, for providing me with their invaluable guidance and encouragement and critique. This research would not have been possible without them. I would especially like to thank my Chair, Prof Hilton Root for his time, patience, support and knowledge. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... ix Abstract ............................................................................................................................... x Chapter 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2. Review of Literature and Theoretical Concepts ................................................ 5 2.1 Good Governance ...................................................................................................... 6 2.1.1 Indicators of Good Governance ........................................................................ 10 2.2 Political Entrepreneurship ....................................................................................... 17 2.2.1 Definitions ........................................................................................................ 18 2.3 The Changing Face of India’s Economy and Regional Politics .............................. 24 2.4 Thesis Contribution ................................................................................................. 30 Chapter 3. Research Design and Methodology ................................................................. 33 3.1 Propositions ............................................................................................................. 35 3.2 Methods and Data .................................................................................................... 36 3.2.1 Area Visit and Qualitative Semi-structured Interviews .................................... 38 3.2.2 Background on Selected Stakeholders ............................................................. 38 3.2.3 Analysis of Textual Data .................................................................................. 39 Chapter 4. A Background on Gujarat and Bihar ............................................................... 42 4.1 Gujarat’s Political Landscape .................................................................................. 42 4.1.1 Gujarat’s Election Results ................................................................................ 46 4.2 Background on Narendra Modi ............................................................................... 48 4.3 Bihar’s Political Landscape ..................................................................................... 56 4.3.1 Bihar’s Election Results ................................................................................... 60 4.4 Nitish Kumar’s Political Trajectory ........................................................................ 63 v Chapter 5. Understanding Political Entrepreneurship and Winning Strategies: Evidence from Gujarat ...................................................................................................................... 67 5.1 Macro Indicators and Policy Innovations by the Gujarat Government ................... 68 5.2 Recent Developments: The 2014 National Elections and the “Gujarat Model” at the National Level ............................................................................................................... 89 5.3 Evaluating the Propositions ..................................................................................... 95 Chapter 6. Nitish Kumar and the Case of Bihar: Political Survival, Creating New Alliances, and the Impact on Governance ...................................................................... 106 6.1 Macro Indicators and Policy Initiatives by the JDU-BJP coalition ...................... 107 6.2 Recent Developments and the Scramble for Bihar ............................................... 118 6.3 Evaluating the Propositions ................................................................................... 123 Chapter 7. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 129 7.1 Understanding the Cases through Selectorate Theory .......................................... 131 7.2 Limitations and Next Steps ................................................................................... 136 References ....................................................................................................................... 138 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1 Indicators of Governance ..................................................................................... 10 Table 2: List of Interviewees ............................................................................................ 39 Table 3: Gujarat 2002 Elections ....................................................................................... 47 Table 4: Gujarat 2007 Elections ....................................................................................... 47 Table 5: Gujarat 2012 Elections ....................................................................................... 47 Table 6: Bihar 2005 Elections (February) ........................................................................ 61 Table 7: Bihar 2005 Elections (October) .......................................................................... 61 Table 8: Bihar 2010 Elections........................................................................................... 62 Table 9: Gujarat and All India Poverty Numbers (% of population below poverty line) . 69 Table 10: GSDP Growth Rates in Gujarat (% per year) ................................................... 69 Table 11: State Economic Freedoms Scores and Ranks ................................................... 71 Table 12: Ranking of Indian States on Ease of Doing Business (2015) ........................... 72 Table 13: Ranking of Major Indian States on Anti-Corruption Efforts ............................ 82 Table 14: Infant Mortality Rates in Indian States ............................................................. 84 Table 15: State-wise Enrolment Ratio (Grades I-VIII) for