Claiming the State: Active Citizenship and Social Welfare in Rural India

Description

Citizens around the world look to the state for social welfare provision, but often struggle to access essential services in health, education, and social security. This book investigates the everyday practices through which citizens of the world's largest democracy make claims on the state, asking whether, how, and why they engage public officials in the pursuit of social welfare. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in rural India, Kruks-Wisner demonstrates that claim-making is possible in settings (poor and remote) and among people (the lower classes and castes) where much democratic theory would be unlikely to predict it. Examining the conditions that foster and inhibit citizen action, she finds that greater social and spatial exposure - made possible when individuals traverse boundaries of caste, neighborhood, or village - builds citizens' political knowledge, expectations, and linkages to the state, and is associated with higher levels and broader repertoires of claim-making. Machine generated contents note: pt. I INTRODUCTION AND THEORY 1.Introduction: Citizenship and Social Welfare Claiming Services, Claiming the State Citizen and State in India Explaining Active Citizenship Research Setting Research Design Organization of the Book 2.A Theory of Active Citizenship Claim-Making Conditions Aspirations toward the State Capabilities for Action Social and Spatial Exposure Scope Conditions Applying the Theory pt. II CITIZENSHIP PRACTICE IN RAJASTHAN 3.The Institutional Terrain of the State Expansion of the Social Welfare Sector Social Welfare Provision in Rajasthan Rajasthan in Transition Going Local Setting the Stage for Claim-Making 4.Seeking the State: Claim-Making Patterns and Puzzles The Claim-Making Landscape Measuring Claim-Making Disaggregating Claim-Making: What, Where, and Who? Patterns and Puzzles 5.Encountering the State: Citizens `Social and Spatial Exposure' Contents note continued: Social and Spatial Boundaries Boundary Porousness Increasing Social and Spatial Exposure Exposure and Claim-Making Aspirations Exposure and Claim-Making Capabilities 6.Claiming the State: Exposure as a Catalyst for Citizen Action Testing the Relationship Analysis and Findings What Causes What? Correlates of Claim-Making and Exposure Aspirations and Capabilities Isolation and Connectivity pt. III CONSEQUENCES AND EXTENSIONS 7.The Consequences of Claim-Making Material Access to Social Welfare Claim-Making as Quotidian Citizenship Practice Other Forms of Political Participation The Changing Face of Clientelism Rajasthan at a Crossroads 8.Conclusion: Active Citizenship in Rajasthan and Beyond The Capacity to Aspire Beyond Community and Locality The Conditioning Effects of the State State-Induced and Socially Produced Citizen Action Building and Sustaining Active Citizenship Contents note continued: Appendices Appendix I Research Methodology Appendix II Correlates of Claim-Making Appendix III Correlates of Social and Spatial Exposure Appendix IV Testing the Mechanisms: Aspirations and Capabilities Appendix V The Consequences of Claim-Making.