Editorial

Published date01 December 2017
DOI10.1177/0019556117726847
AuthorMahendra Prasad Singh
Date01 December 2017
Subject MatterArticles
Editorial
The issues of inequality and inclusive growth, poverty and privations, service
delivery, political and administrative leadership, etc. are central to the discourses
of development and democracy in contemporary India and the world. In the earlier
social science literature, political scientists largely focused on democracy and
economists on development (read economic development). As a firm believer in
the value and creative potential of inter- and multi-disciplinary research, I find it
disappointing that after a notable and promising attempt in bringing political and
economic sciences closer in an interdisciplinary cross-fertilisation by Anthony
Downs (1957), there is still not much progress in this direction. In fact, this prom-
ising field has been devastatingly blighted by the triumph of neoliberalism as the
dominant ideology in the post-Cold War globalising capitalist world.
Though these crucial social science disciplines still exist in splendid isolation,
by and large, it is heartening to flag a new significant work in Robinson and White
(1999) on what they call ‘democratic developmental state’. This book challenges
the widening consensus over the last two decades that the development in the
late developing societies and poor economies is better achieved by authoritar-
ian rather than democratic regimes. They postulate a mutually sustaining rela-
tionship between democracy and development. (See an article on Democratic
Developmental State in India by Niraj Kumar [2016].)
It is a great advance from the myopic concept of ‘developmental state’ à la
Chalmers Johnson (1982), Adrian Leftwich (2000), Meredith Woo-Cummings
(1999) and Vivek Chibber (2011). These works have been mesmerised by the
East Asian ‘miracle economies’, which have now been proved to be not as great
a deal as they were taken to be early on. Although the arguments by Johnson
(1982) are more nuanced and are further elaborated by Chibber (2014), others of
this theoretical persuasion are indeed the precursors in the studies of the global
South of the post-Cold War neoliberal state. Leftwich postulates six compo-
nents of developmental state: (a) a determined developmental elite, (b) relative
autonomy of the state from societal pressures, (c) a powerful/competent/insulated
economic bureaucracy, (d) a weak civil society, (e) effective management of non-
state economic interests and (f) political repression, economic performance and
legitimacy. The argument has lost much of its persuasiveness since the East Asian
financial meltdown of the late 1990s.
Public Administration has been an applied discipline (e.g., à la Edward
Weidner, 1921–2007). And, public policy analysis has been even more con-
structive and innovatively oriented to giving a call for multidisciplinary ‘Policy
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
63(4) vii–xiii
© 2017 IIPA
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0019556117726847
http://journals.sagepub.com/home/ipa

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT