Uneven Expectations: Geography of Citizenship Practice in Rural & Urban India

• In Event: Local Politics in Developing Countries: Experiencing and Engaging with the State

Abstract

When and why do poor citizens expect the state to respond to their claims, and how do those expectations shape citizenship practice? Drawing on survey data and qualitative fieldwork from northern India, our study reveals a dramatic expectations gap that complicates widely held views of political engagement in the urban core versus the rural periphery: the urban poor, we find, are four times more likely to believe that they will be ignored upon approaching an official, and are twice as likely to seek assistance from political intermediaries, than similarly poor rural villagers who are, instead, most likely to turn directly to local elected representatives. We argue that these varied beliefs and practices are best explained by differences in the local institutional environment, including the greater visibility of social welfare provision in villages compared to slums; the greater depth of rural decentralization; and the greater strength of urban party organizations. Together, these factors influence the ease with and pathways through which citizens access the state. We conclude by reflecting on the political consequences of these differences in citizen claim-making, which suggest the potential for both virtuous and vicious feedback loops between government performance and citizenship practice.

Authors

• Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner, University of Virginia

• Adam Michael Auerbach, American University-SIS