Offered to: Class of 2020, 2021, and 2022
Prerequisites: None
Office Hours: Drop-in sessions and/or by appointment
The course will be divided into two segments: politics and society and economics and development. The course aims at providing a comprehensive view of the political economy of policy making in India at the national and provincial levels. It will begin an introduction to India's Constitutional arrangement and the division of responsibilities between the governments at the centre, state and local levels.
Following that, there will be a discussion on the early origins of public policy as articulated in the Bombay, People's and Gandhian Plans. An overview of India's political evolution will be provided: the working of the "Congress System" and changes brought about during the "era of coalitions". Following that an introduction to the role of caste, class and regional factors in shaping public policy will be provided.
In the second part of the course the focus will be on economic policy, regional development and regional politics and the growing centralisation of economic policy. The course will conclude with a discussion of the role of business and media in public policy.
