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Policymaking in India evokes an image of rational decision-making and technical optimality. However, the arena of policymaking is characterized by conflict and contestation resolved through processes of negotiations and compromises. A significant amount of research in India focuses on policy goals and consequences, and less on policy processes. Breaking away from that approach, Public Policy and Politics in India directly addresses policy processes and discusses the role of institutions in policymaking in India. The wide-ranging essays cover issues such as environment, education, Parliament, liberalization and governance. They highlight failures of implementation resulting from deep-rooted flaws in the overall policy design. The volume aims not only to provoke a debate but also to encourage more systematic studies in the area.

Contents: Preface. Public policy analysis: an introduction. 1. Guidance for governance in India: alternative sources of public policy advice. 2. Policy analysis in India: research bases and discursive practices. 3. Policy research organizations in South Asia. 4. Battling for clean environment: Supreme Court, technocrats and populist politics in Delhi. 5. Does performance matter? Policy struggles in education. 6. Privatization as reform: liberalization and public sector enterprises in India. 7. Drought in Parliament: representation and participation. 8. Governance as networks: emerging relationships among the state, business, and NGO in India. 9. Strengthening bureaucracy: state and development in India. 10. Administrative reform in India: policy prescriptions and outcomes. Index.