POLITICAL PARTICIPATION, CLIENTELISM AND TARGETING OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS: Analysis of Survey Results from Rural West Bengal, India

This paper provides evidence concerning political participation (turnout, awareness, attendance at meetings, campaign involvement, voting) and its relation to local governance (targeting of public services) in a developing country, based on a rural household survey in West Bengal, India. With the exception of education and immigrant status, we find that reported participation rates varied remarkably little with socio-economic status. Within villages, benefits disbursed by local governments displayed no relation to wealth, caste, education, gender or political affiliations. In contrast, allocation of benefits across villages by higherlevel governments displayed bias against poor and low caste groups; these biases were larger in villages with more unequal landownership and lower participation rates in village meetings. Political support among voters for the dominant Left party was positively correlated with receipt of recurring benefits and help provided by local governments in times of personal need, but not long-term onetime benefits or local public goods provided.

[1]  A. Przeworski.  Constraints and Choices , 2009 .

[2]  A. Krishna.  Poverty and Democratic Participation Reconsidered: Evidence from the Local Level in India , 2006 .

[3]  Dilip Mookherjee,et al.  Pro-poor targeting and accountability of local governments in West Bengal , 2006 .

[4]  Alejandro Gaviria,et al.  Economic, Social and Demographic Determinants of Political Participation in Latin America; Evidence from the 1990s , 2004 .

[5]  R. Reinikka,et al.  Making Services Work for Poor People , 2004 .

[6]  W. Tordoff.  Democracy and Decentralisation in South Asia and West Africa: participation, accountability and performance by R ICHARD C. C ROOK and J AMES M ANOR Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xvi+335. £45.00, £15.95 (pbk.). , 2000 .

[7]  Dilip Mookherjee,et al.  Capture and Governance at Local and National Levels , 2000 .

[8]  B. Harriss‐White,et al.  Sonar bangla? Agricultural growth and agrarian change in West Bengal and Bangladesh. , 1999 .

[9]  J. Manor,et al.  Democracy and Decentralisation in South Asia and West Africa: Participation, Accountability and Performance , 1998 .

[10]  S. Keeter,et al.  What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters , 1996 .

[11]  N. Nie,et al.  PSR volume 66 issue 3 Cover and Front matter , 1972, American Political Science Review.

[12]  Gianpaolo Baiocchi,et al.  Evaluating Empowerment: Participatory Budgeting in Brazilian Municipalities. , 2006 .

[13]  Maitreesh Ghatak,et al.  Recent reforms in the Panchayat system in west Bengal: toward greater participatory governance , 2002 .

[14]  B. Harriss‐White,et al.  From untouchable to communist: wealth, power and status among supporters of the Communist Party (Marxist) in rural West Bengal. , 1999 .

[15]  Steven J. Rosenstone,et al.  Mobilization, participation, and democracy in America , 1993 .