Political pressures and bureaucratic consequences: vignettes of janmabhoomi implementation in Andhra Pradesh

Konkipudi, Kiran and Jacob, Suraj (2017) Political pressures and bureaucratic consequences: vignettes of janmabhoomi implementation in Andhra Pradesh. Studies in Indian Politics, 5 (1). pp. 1-17.

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Abstract

Drawing on vignettes from fieldwork in Andhra Pradesh, the article explores how political pressures shape bureaucratic practices around the government’s flagship Janmabhoomi programme. It argues that competitive state politics manifests in clientelist–populist voter mobilization leading to two-level political pressures—state politicians pressure higher bureaucracy which in turn pressures the lower bureaucracy tasked with implementation, and local politicians allied with the governing party put direct pressures on lower bureaucracy for favouritism. Lower level bureaucrats cope with these impossible pressures by subverting official procedures, so that actual practices hardly match the rational Weberian construction in official documents. The article’s contribution lies in linking the ‘political game’ and the ‘bureaucratic game’ in a grounded empirical context.

Item Type:	Article
Authors:	Konkipudi, Kiran and Jacob, Suraj
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Andhra politics, Janmabhoomi, clientelism, populism, street-level bureaucracy
Subjects:	Social sciences > Political Science
Divisions:	Azim Premji University - Bengaluru > School of Arts and Sciences
Full Text Status:	Restricted
Related URLs:	Google Scholar
URI:	http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/339
Publisher URL:	https://doi.org/10.1177/2321023017698254

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