COMPARATIVE SYSTEMS OF GOVERNANCE
Course Title
Programme Title
Mode
Course ID
Course Type
Credits
Course Development
Team
COMPARATIVE SYSTEMS
OF GOVERNANCE
MA (Development)
[●]
Level
[●]
Semester
Mandatory
Academic Year
3
Course Tutors
Sudhir Krishnaswamy,
Course Instructor(s)
Srikrishna Ayyangar,
Narayana A, Nafis Hasan,
Mathew Idiculla
[●]
IV
2015-16
[*]
Sitharamam Kakarala
Course Rationale:
Both state and government are eminently worthy of study as they have historically represented
the dominant order through which social, economic and political relationships in society have
come to be determined. In this sense, theoretical or practical engagement with any aspect of
society requires a deep understanding of the foundations of the state. This course will allow
students of the M.A. Development programme to comprehend and critically engage with the
state by providing a deeper understanding of the foundations and characteristics of government
and its modes of operation.
Traditionally, such an enquiry has been broadly separated across two axes - the state idea as an
ideological project offering a compelling object of analysis and a state-system as a number of
interacting institutions constituting the reality of the state. A close engagement with both the
ideological as well as the material basis of the state is necessary for changing the contours of the
discourse of state and government, which have been faulted for not adequately theorizing the
present. In other words, a handle on foundations can generate new ways of responding to
contemporary concepts of governance. The first few units of this course therefore studies with
rigour foundational theories of state and government and their evolution over time.
The course adopts a comparative perspective in eliciting both the idea as well the materiality of
the state. It brings to the fore broad theoretical approaches that have been historically employed
to understand the idea of the state and offers a comparative reading across these approaches.
Further, in order to gain a substantive hold on what constitutes the materiality of the state, the
course offers horizontal and vertical comparative perspectives on the state as an entity. For
instance, in order to define the nature of the material state, this course attempts to map various
typologies of the state, new emerging theories and practices of government and comparisons
between the present and pre-present structures of government. Research over the last few
decades has also shown that even while state structures society it is also firmly embedded in it.
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Hence, preparing for social change requires not just a grasp of the roots of both state and
government, but also an understanding of its embeddedness in society, specifically its relation
with the economy.
Overall, a course offering a deep engagement with theories and practices of state and
government is necessary to create an intellectual platform from which investigations into new
forms and practices of governances can be embarked upon. In short, such a platform can be the
intellectual guide to explorations around the tools and methods for the implementation of
developmental policy in India. The course builds upon some ideas discussed in the Law and
Governance core course and will also theoretically contextualize some of the more specialized
elective courses on Governance offered in the Law and Governance specialization.
Course Objectives:



To promote a critical theoretical reflection on idea and evolution of the state and the
government
To equip students to understand the frameworks and practices of government in a
comparative perspective
To equip students with a conceptual understanding of the government which will inform
future field based engagements
Teaching Methods:
The course will primarily be delivered through class room lectures and discussions.
Evaluation and Grading:
Attendance, Class Participation and Presentation – 20% [Attendance-5%, Class Participation-5%,
presentation-10%]
Term Paper – 40%
End-term Exam – 40%
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Syllabus:
Weeks 1 and 2 will introduce the contemporary debates on comparative studies, focusing
especially on the themes of politics, law and institutions of governance. These sessions will
provide an overview of the debates on conceptual issues as well as methodological issues in
engaging with comparative study of politics, laws and systems of governance.
Week 1: Basics of Comparison
Readings:
Hiram Chodosh, “Comparing Comparisons: In Search of Methodology” 84 Iowa L. Rev 1025
(1999)
Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, Jens Riedel, and Dominic Sachsenmaier, “The Context of the Multiple
Modernities Paradigm”, in Reflections on Multiple Modernities (2002).
Andrei Marmor, Law in the age of Pluralism (2007), Ch. 7 (“Should like cases be treated alike”)
Week 2: Introduction to Comparative Studies
Readings:
Todd Landman, Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics: An Introduction (2003), Ch. 1
Tom Clark and Jennifer Gandhi, “Studying Institutions”, in Routledge Handbook of Comparative
Political Institutions, edited by Jennifer Gandhi and Ruben Ruiz-Rufino (2015)
Geoffrey Samuel, “What is Comparison?”, in An Introduction to Comparative Law Theory and
Method (2014)
Gabriel Almond, “Comparative Political Systems”, 18 Journal of Politics (1956)
Weeks 3-5 will introduce the State as an Idea, through a discussion of the various schools
through which this has come to be determined. The discussions in these weeks will be guided
by the question of what has changed and why something has changed in the evolutionary
process of state formation and transformation.
Week 3&4: Theories of the State
Readings:
Ashis Nandy, “State” in The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power, edited by
Wolfgang Sachs (2010)
Benei, V and John Fuller, The Everyday State and Society in Modern India (2001), Ch 1.
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Nicos Poulantzas, Political Power and Social Classes, New Left Books, London, 1973, Ch. 3 (the
concept of power)
Michael Marinetto, Social Theory, The State and Modern Society: The State in Contemporary
Context (2007), Ch. 1
Optional
Montesquieu; The Spirit of Laws
Locke, John. Two treatises of government
Carneiro, Robert L. "A Theory of the Origin of the State" Science 169.3947 (1970): 733-738.
Daniel Bell, The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, 1976
Philip Abrams, Notes on the Difficulty of Studying the State (1977), Journal of Historical Sociology
Week 5: The State in Changing Times
Readings:
Michael Marinetto, Social Theory, The State and Modern Society: The State in Contemporary
Context (2007), Ch. 6
Ortwin Renn, Risk Governance: Coping with Uncertainty in a Complex World (2008), Ch. 9
Martin Carnoi and Manuel Castells, “Globalisation, the Knowledge Society and the Network
State: Poulantzas at the Millennium”, 1 Global Networks (2001)
Maarten Hajer and Hendrik Wagenaar, “Introduction”, in Deliberative Policy Analysis:
Understanding Governance in the Network Society (2003).
Optional:
Skocpol, Theda. "Bringing the state back in: strategies of analysis in current research” in Evans,
Peter B., Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and Theda Skocpol, eds. Bringing the state back in. Cambridge
University Press, 1985, pp.3-37
Evans, Peter. "The eclipse of the state? Reflections on stateness in an era of globalization." World
politics 50.01 (1997): 62-87.
Weeks 6-7 will introduce the State System and chart out the typologies that have historically
defined the State System. The different typologies will be put into a comparative framework in
order to elicit the key characteristics of each regime type.
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Week 6&7: State-System: Typologies
Readings:
John Clarke, “Reconstructing Nation, State and Welfare: The Transformation of Welfare States”,
in Welfare State Transformations: Comparative Perspectives, edited by Martin Seeleib-Kaiser
(2008)
Amiya Kumar Bagchi. The developmental state in history and in the twentieth century. Daya Books
(2004).
Richard Robison, “Neo-Liberalism and the Market State: What is the Ideal Shell?”, in The NeoLiberal Revolution: Forging the Market State (2006).
Harriss, John. 2003. “Do Political Regimes Matter: Poverty Reduction and Regime Difference
Across India,” in Peter P. Houtzager and Mick Moore, eds., Changing Paths: International
Development and the New Politics of Inclusion, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, USA, pp.
204-31.
Optional
Lloyd Rudolf and Susanne Rudolf. In Pursuit of Lakshmi: The Political Economy of the Indian State
(1987)
Weeks 8-9 will engage with the material construction of the State-System, particularly its well
established linkage with society and the manner in which State and society constitute one
another.
Week 8&9: State System: Social Embeddedness
Readings:
Joel Migdal. State in society: Studying how states and societies transform and constitute one
another. (2001), ch. ?
Peter Evans, Embedded autonomy: states and industrial transformation (1995), Chapters 1 & 2, pp 342
Michael Mann, The Sources of Social Power: A History of Power from the Beginning to 1760 AD
(1986). Ch 1 (Societies as organized power networks)
Deborah de Lange, Power and Influence: The Embeddedness of Nations (2010), Ch. 1
Optional
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Duncan Derrett. Religion, law and the state in India. (1968).
Frankel, Francine, and M. S. A. Rao. Dominance and state power in India: Decline of a Social Order
(1989).
Karl Polanyi. The great transformation: The political and economic origins of our time. Beacon
Press, 1944.
Mark Granovetter, “Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness”,
American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 91, No. 3 (Nov., 1985) , pp. 481-510
Weeks 10-12: If the prior four weeks have been engaged in establishing the concept of the State
System, its material conditions and its links with other forms of organizing life (such as society),
the next 3 weeks will engage with the Functions and Frameworks of the State System. This will
be guided by the questions of what role does the State-System play in society, what are the
nature of processes it employs to carry out its functions and what have been its expected
outcomes. These questions will be complicated by positing new forms and practices of the
State System that are increasingly being centered on the nodes of the market and networks.
What does this do to traditional forms of organizing the State System? In what manner does it
transform it?
Week 10: State-System: Functions
Readings:
Ralph Miliband, “The Purpose and the Role of Government” in The State in Capitalist Society
(1969).
Weber, Max. “Bureaucracy” in Girth and Mills, Max Weber, essays in Sociology (1946): 196-244.
Optional
Christopher Hood. 1986. Administrative Analysis: An Introduction to Rules, Enforcement and
Organization, Brighton, Harvester.
Keith Dowding (1995). The Civil Service (Theory and Practice in British Politics). Routledge
Week 11&12: State-System: Frameworks of Governance
Readings:
Castells, Manuel. The rise of the network society: The information age: Economy, society, and
culture. Vol. 1. 1996.
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Montgomery, John Dickey, and Nathan Glazer, eds. Sovereignty under challenge: how
governments respond. Transaction Publishers, 2002.
Manor, James and Christopher Colclough, and, eds. States or Markets?: Neo-liberalism and the
development policy debate. Oxford University Press, 1993.
Dixon, J., and R. Dogan. 2002. “Hierarchies, Networks and Markets: Responses to Societal
Governance Failure.” Administrative Theory & Praxis 24 (1): 175–96.
Valerie Sperling, Altered States: The Globalisation of Accountability (2009), Ch. 1
Gurutz Jauregui, “A New Political order for Twenty-First Century: from state Governments to
Global Governance”, in Humanity at Risk: Need for Global Governance, edited by Daniel innerarity
and Javier Solana (2013)
Optional
Harriss-White, Barbara, Aseem Prakash, and Deepak Mishra. "Globalisation, Economic Citizenship,
and India’s Inclusive Developementalism." in Citizenship as Cultural Flow. Springer Berlin
Heidelberg, 2013. 187-209.
Klijn, E. 2008. “Governance and Governance Networks in Europe: An Assessment of Ten Years of
Research on the Theme.” Public Management Review 10 (4): 505–25.
Kettl, Donald F. Sharing power: Public governance and private markets. Brookings Institution
Press, 1993.
Bevir, M. 2006. “Democratic Governance: Systems and Radical Perspectives.” Public
Administration Review 1 (66): 426–36.
Ostrom, Elinor. "Beyond markets and states: polycentric governance of complex economic
systems." The American economic review (2010): 641-672.
Weeks 13&14: This will be followed by 2 weeks of discussion around the performance of the
State System. What kind of indicators does one employ to measure the quality of governance
that a State system provides? What are the kinds of regime types that most conducive to
desirable governance? Is “good governance” measurable?
Week 13&14: State System: Measuring Performance
Readings:
Eran Vigoda-Gadot and Shlomo Mizrahi, Managing Democracies in Turbulent times: Trust,
Performance and Governance in Modern States (2014), Ch. 6.
Joseph Nye Jr and John Donahue, eds., Governance in a Globalising World (2000), Introduction.
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Subrata Mitra, The Puzzle of India’s Governance: Culture, Context and Comparative Theory (2006),
Ch. 2
Todd Landman, “Measuring Human Rights: Principles, Practice and Policy”, 26 Human Rights
Quarterly (2004).
Optional:
Subrata Mitra, The Puzzle of India’s Governance: Culture, Context and Comparative Theory (2006),
Ch. 8
Francis Fukuyama: What is Governance? July 2013
Weeks 15&16: The final two weeks will bring to a fore the theories and frameworks of the State
System described in the previous weeks of the course by engaging the practices of the State
System in India. This will be gleaned through a variety of anthropological readings on India that
deal with the lived experience of the State in local conditions.
Week 15&16: State System in India
Readings:
Lloyd Rudolph and Susanne Rudolph, “Demand Policy and Command Polity”, in Democracy in
India, edited by Niraja Gopal Jayal (2001).
Akhil Gupta and Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan, eds. The state in India after liberalization:
Interdisciplinary perspectives. Taylor & Francis, 2010.
Gupta, A. “Blurred Boundaries: The Discourse of Corruption, the Culture of Politics, and the
Imagined State” In Sharma, A., & Gupta, A. (Eds.). The anthropology of the state: a reader (2009)
G. Ram Reddy and G. Haragopal, “The Pyraveekar: ‘The Fixer’ in Rural India”, Asian Survey, Vol. 25,
No. 11. (Nov., 1985), pp. 1148-1162.
Optional
Corbridge, Stuart, etc. Seeing the State: Governance and Governmentality in India, 2005.
James Manor: “Small-Time Political Fixers in India's States: "Towel over Armpit":
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3021178?seq=1
Debroy, Bibek, and Garry Pursell. "Government Procurement Policies in India." Law and Policy in
Public Purchasing (1997).
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