Western policymakers, political activists and academics alike see patronage as the chief enemy of open, democratic societies. Patronage, for them, is a corrupting force, a hallmark of failed and failing states, and the obverse of everything that good, modern governance ought to be. South Asia poses a frontal challenge for this consensus. Here the world's most populous, pluralist and animated democracy is also a hotbed of corruption with persistently startling levels of inequality. Patronage as Politics in South Asia confronts this paradox with calm erudition: sixteen essays by anthropologists, historians and political scientists show, from a wide range of cultural and historical angles, that in South Asia patronage is no feudal residue or retrograde political pressure, but a political form vital in its own right. This volume suggests that patronage is no foe to South Asia's burgeoning democratic cultures, but may in fact be their main driving force. INDICE: List of illustrations; Foreword John Dunn; Acknowledgements; Introduction Anastasia Piliavsky; Part I. The Idea of Patronage in South Asia: 1. The political economy of patronage, pre-eminence and the State in Chennai Mattison Mines; 2. The temporal and the spiritual, and the so-called patron-client relation in the governance of Inner Asia and Tibet D. Seyfort Ruegg; 3. Remnants of patronage and the making of Tamil Valaiyar pasts Diane Mines; 4. Patronage and State-making in early modern empires in India and Britain Sumit Guha; Part II. Democracy as Patronage: 5. The paradox of patronage and the People's sovereignty David Gilmartin; 6. India's demotic democracy and its 'depravities' in the ethnographic longue durée Anastasia Piliavsky; 7. 'Vote banking' as politics in Mumbai Lisa Björkman; 8. Political fixers in India's patronage democracy Ward Berenschot; 9. Patronage and autonomy in India's deepening democracy Pamela Price, with Dusi Srinivas; 10. Police and legal patronage in northern India Beatrice Jauregui; 11. Patronage politics in post-Independence India Steven I. Wilkinson; Part III. Prospects and Disappointments: 12. Kingship without kings in northern India Lucia Michelutti; 13. The political bully in Bangladesh Arild Engelsen Ruud; 14. The dark side of patronage in the Pakistani Punjab Nicolas Martin; 15. Patronage and printing innovation in fifteenth-century Tibet Hildegard Diemberger; 16. The im(morality) of mediation and patronage in South India and the Gulf Filippo Osella; Contributors; Bibliography; Index.
- ISBN: 978-1-107-05608-4
- Editorial: Cambridge University Press
- Encuadernacion: Cartoné
- Páginas: 484
- Fecha Publicación: 16/10/2014
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés