Participatory Governance Reform In West Bengal: Policy Agendas and Local Responses

This research study adopted the vision articulated by Evans (2008) that successful implementation of development goals as envisaged by the MDGs or SDGs necessitates creation of more effective State-society linkages by the twenty-first century State. Evans highlights the importance of creating or re-structuring governance structures at the grassroots, leading to substantive citizens’ participation in the developmental processes of the State. Based on this theoretical location, this research seeks to understand the factors which shape the opportunities for ‘effective’ people’s participation in local governance structures under different political regimes, and also identify the conditions, possibilities and limitations for forging more effective State-society linkages. Several initiatives of decentralised state reforms were undertaken in the Indian State of West Bengal by a three-decade long Left regime, that was replaced by a populist right wing regime in 2011. Some of these initiatives were ideology-driven, while some were launched with financial assistance from international donor agencies, making West Bengal a strategic case to look at the factors connecting global discourses with the complex power relations operating in developing country contexts. This research therefore, specifically asks questions about the actors and the motives driving the ‘participatory agenda’ at various levels, how this agenda is shaped by changing political conditions and the effects of policy prescriptions on the decentralised governance structures, based on the case of West Bengal. This research draws together a number of different sources to investigate these questions: government and party documents, interviews with senior civil servants and politicians responsible for setting the agenda for state reforms, and detailed insights into their operation gained through extensive field visits and interviews within five Gram Panchayats (village councils) in Bankura District. Together, these provide an understanding of the longer-term impact of state reform on spaces for popular participation. The thesis highlights the motivations and ideologies of political leaders, the role of bureaucratic elites, and that of global discourses in shaping governance practices. It contributes to the academic literature on building effective participation, arguing for a careful analysis of the interests shaping processes of institutional reform and of their effects on state-society relations.