Anti-Corruption Movements versus Democratic Deepening in India

• In Event: Anti-Corruption Politics and Reactionary Populism

Abstract

Corruption is viewed as a challenge to democratic governance in developing countries. Fighting corruption is, therefore, associated with democratic deepening. By ensuring that rules are followed by everyone, rather than just the wealthy and well-connected, and that resources are not captured by rent-seekers, but rather distributed by either the market or an impartial state, a corruption-free country is better situated to implement democratically determined rules and policies. But rules tend to favor the wealthy and powerful, who are largely responsible for drafting them. In addition, corruption is often the only means of financing expensive electoral campaigns; under these conditions poor and powerless segments of the population struggle to break into politics. The only way to change this status quo is to empower politicians who promise to do so. In this paper we examine the relationship between anti-corruption politics and democratic deepening in India, a place where corruption is rampant and anti-corruption politics are a common feature of electoral campaigns and street protests. We argue that, good intentions notwithstanding, anti-corruption politics in India undermine democratic politics in three distinct ways: (1) they are incompatible with democratic deepening, in that they constrain the rise of poor people’s parties; (2) they undermine the political claims of the marginalized upon state resources by framing these groups as undeserving of the state's re-distributive efforts; and (3) they depoliticize the process of governance by demanding the transfer of power from politicians to technocrats.

Authors

• Susan L. Ostermann, University of Notre Dame

• Amit Ahuja, University of California, Santa Barbara