Political economy

The Indian economy has been suffering from a persistent fiscal deficit for the last four decades. With the transition to coalition politics in the 1980s, the country’s political economy characteristics have significantly affected its fiscal policies and outcomes, but this has received scant attention in the literature. The impact of macroeconomic and political economy factors on India’s fiscal deficit between 1978–79 and 2016–17—a period when the country witnessed simultaneous economic and political structural transformations—has been investigated in this study. It finds evidence of a close link between electoral cycles and fiscal populism and between government fragmentation and fiscal profligacy. Additionally, it finds that a strong opposition does not necessarily mitigate the fiscal populism of incumbent governments.

Economic Challenges for the Contemporary World: Essays in Honour of Prabhat Patnaik edited by Mausumi Das, Sabyasachi Kar and Nandan Nawn, New Delhi: Sage, 2016; pp 324+xvii,₹1,195.

Football might be touted as the social unifier by the dominant powers, but in reality it is the site of the most violent social divisions and ensuing protest movements. To cede spaces of football to the forces of capital will be to let go of these very forces of struggle. 

This paper highlights the high cost of military security in Pakistan over the past 20 years. With the single agenda of its policy-makers being to neutralise India's military might, defence spending has always got a higher priority than development expenditure. More importantly, the military has had a major role in the division of national resources. The military's role as the key player in power politics and decision-making has allowed it to take a major chunk of the financial pie.

The paper explores the political economy factors that influenced the evolution of educational institutions and shaped the legislation that now governs the education sector in UP. The study focuses on the extent of and reasons for teachers' participation in politics, the evolution and activities of their unions, the size of their representation in the state legislature and the link between these and other factors such as the enactment of particular education acts in UP, teacher salaries and appointments, and the extent of centralisation in the management of schools. It attempts to draw out implications for the functioning of schools. The first part of this paper looked at the role of teacher's associations and their evolution as a powerful political pressure group in UP. The second part now analyses the impact the teacher's associations have had on the system of finances in UP, and its impact on general educational levels in the state. Even as strikes, demonstrations, sit-ins in support of more emoluments and benefits have become powerful tools in the hands of these associations, schools see a large degree of absenteeism and apathy towards students, while the state government remains unable to meet non-salary expenditure. [The paper has been published in two parts, this being the second part. The first part appeared last week.]