Democracy, Development, and the Countryside : Urban-Rural Struggles in India

What happens to the rural folk--to their power and economic well-being--when development takes place in a democratic framework? Focusing on India where, unlike most of the developing world, a democratic system has flourished for four decades, this book investigates how the rural sector uses its numbers in a democracy to further its economic and political interests. The book also argues that identities constitute a powerful constraint on the pursuit of economic interests.

"Democracy, Development, and the Countryside: Urban-Rural Struggles in India is a fascinating and important book. For the first time in the modern political economy literature, Varshney is able to examine in depth the inherent conflicts in a poor, democratic, society between basic macroeconomic balance and the political voice of an enfranchized rural majority. This book is of interest to both economists and political scientists, and as much for the perspective offered to each other's disciplines as for the direct contribution....a meticulously researched and crisply argued volume." C. Peter Timmer, Harvard University

"This is the definitive study of how India's bureaucrats, politicians and organized agrarian interests transformed India's agricultural policies. Varshney shows how the politically mobilized agrarian sector was able to overcome the urban-bias that has impeded agricultural growth elsewhere in the late developing countries. An outstanding contribution to the political economy literature." Myron Weiner, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"In this important book, Varshney pits established wisdom about agrarian politics and urban bias with the data from India, one of the most significant cases in Third World development. The result is a substantial and exciting reappraisal of what we thought we knew. We learn much about the impact of political insitutions, about the significance of democracy, and about the limits of rural power. A major work." Robert H. Bates, Harvard University

"The author has produced a truly exceptional book. His clear style, comparative focus, and methodologically sophisticated approach make this book a major contribution to the field of political economy, comparative politics and Indian Studies. Varshney has established himself as one of the leading young scholars in the field." Stanley A. Kochanek, Studies in Comparative International Development