Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
This article attempts to read the paratextual elements in Mayilamma: The Life of a Tribal Eco-warrior (2018), the translated autobiography of Mayilamma, a tribal activist from Kerala, India, who led the protest against a Coca-Cola plant in their village. This study also attempts to analyse how translations work to shape and control marginalized life narratives, within an academic framework that caters to predominantly Western imaginings of the marginal exotic. It further questions how a marginalized life narrative is conceived and processed within the larger academia, as well as by the publishing industry. It provides a detailed discourse analysis of the paratextual elements in Mayilamma: The Life of a Tribal Eco-warrior to bring out its market politics and the process of exoticizing the marginalized. This article argues that through paratexts, there is an attempt to formulate a subject–object out of Mayilamma, within the academic imaginings of a marginal exotic rebel tribeswoman.
Temporality and the Geopolitical Enframing of Chinese International Development Thinking
Two-party competition in the United States: Reversed growth trends
Party Politics, Ahead of Print.
Does two-party competition in the United States lead to improved human welfare spending? The debate over the merits of competition has gained traction yet again in the study of American politics. Gerald Gamm and Thad Kousser suggest that from 1880 to 1980 two-party competition led to desirable outcomes like increased education, transportation, and health spending. The modern panel data presented here suggest the spending effects do not persist beyond 1980 up through 2020, and also, there is a negative effect on economic growth stemming from state-level partisan competition. The reversal of the historical trend is justified by predictions from existing formal models: at particularly high levels of baseline political competition, the effect of additional competition on growth is ambiguous.
Does two-party competition in the United States lead to improved human welfare spending? The debate over the merits of competition has gained traction yet again in the study of American politics. Gerald Gamm and Thad Kousser suggest that from 1880 to 1980 two-party competition led to desirable outcomes like increased education, transportation, and health spending. The modern panel data presented here suggest the spending effects do not persist beyond 1980 up through 2020, and also, there is a negative effect on economic growth stemming from state-level partisan competition. The reversal of the historical trend is justified by predictions from existing formal models: at particularly high levels of baseline political competition, the effect of additional competition on growth is ambiguous.
Wars for Oil, Wars by Oil: Understanding Petro-Autocracy and the ‘New’ Imperialism
Administrative philosophies in the discourse and decisions of the New Zealand public service: is post-New Public Management still a myth?
International Review of Administrative Sciences, Ahead of Print.
New Zealand is frequently cited as the archetypical example of New Public Management (NPM), having gone ‘further and faster’ than other jurisdictions in radically reforming their public service in the late 1980s. These reforms have been credited with significant gains in efficiency and responsiveness, while introducing new challenges. Successive reforms over the past 30 years tinkered with the model without fundamentally altering the underlying paradigm, such that authors refer to the ‘myth of post-NPM in New Zealand’. In 2020, New Zealand repealed and replaced its main public service legislation. By textually analysing government documents, this article explores the different theoretical roots of New Zealand's ongoing administrative reforms and debates the extent of their theoretical coherence. The Act directly dialogues with and draws inspiration from recent academic debates, drawing from a range of sources (such as New Public Governance, Digital Era Governance, and the New Public Service).Points for practitionersNew Zealand has long been regarded as the purest example of New Public Management (NPM).Legislation passed in 2020 saw New Zealand adopt a range of reforms described in the literature as ‘post-NPM’, while also reaffirming features associated with Traditional Public Administration (TPA).While New Zealand has moved away from a pure NPM model and adopted features associated with Post-NPM, Post-NPM is not a coherent doctrine and it may only be possible to identify administrative doctrines retrospectively.We may be entering a period of ‘New Public Complexity’, where administrative doctrines are blended and layered.
New Zealand is frequently cited as the archetypical example of New Public Management (NPM), having gone ‘further and faster’ than other jurisdictions in radically reforming their public service in the late 1980s. These reforms have been credited with significant gains in efficiency and responsiveness, while introducing new challenges. Successive reforms over the past 30 years tinkered with the model without fundamentally altering the underlying paradigm, such that authors refer to the ‘myth of post-NPM in New Zealand’. In 2020, New Zealand repealed and replaced its main public service legislation. By textually analysing government documents, this article explores the different theoretical roots of New Zealand's ongoing administrative reforms and debates the extent of their theoretical coherence. The Act directly dialogues with and draws inspiration from recent academic debates, drawing from a range of sources (such as New Public Governance, Digital Era Governance, and the New Public Service).Points for practitionersNew Zealand has long been regarded as the purest example of New Public Management (NPM).Legislation passed in 2020 saw New Zealand adopt a range of reforms described in the literature as ‘post-NPM’, while also reaffirming features associated with Traditional Public Administration (TPA).While New Zealand has moved away from a pure NPM model and adopted features associated with Post-NPM, Post-NPM is not a coherent doctrine and it may only be possible to identify administrative doctrines retrospectively.We may be entering a period of ‘New Public Complexity’, where administrative doctrines are blended and layered.
Understanding the Reasons of Decline of Pasmanda Movement: Insights from a Region
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
The Pasmanda Movement is nearly a 100-year-old discourse. However, this movement is not competent enough to unite Muslims, particularly the Pasmanda Muslims, under one banner. It could not develop as a vigorous sociopolitical movement to gain political benefit. In this context, this article attempts to divulge the causes of its deterioration. Analysing so, it tries to trace the unity among Muslims with regard to this discourse. This article also attempts to understand the political philosophy of this movement. This article aims to underline the protests managed by the followers of the movement regarding the Scheduled Caste status for Dalit Muslims. It highlights the assertion of movement in the upsurge of right-wing and secular versus communal politics. This also strives to understand the nature of this discourse in terms of its independency. This article analyses its silence upon the orthodoxy among the Muslim community and their activism through social media to continue this movement.
The Pasmanda Movement is nearly a 100-year-old discourse. However, this movement is not competent enough to unite Muslims, particularly the Pasmanda Muslims, under one banner. It could not develop as a vigorous sociopolitical movement to gain political benefit. In this context, this article attempts to divulge the causes of its deterioration. Analysing so, it tries to trace the unity among Muslims with regard to this discourse. This article also attempts to understand the political philosophy of this movement. This article aims to underline the protests managed by the followers of the movement regarding the Scheduled Caste status for Dalit Muslims. It highlights the assertion of movement in the upsurge of right-wing and secular versus communal politics. This also strives to understand the nature of this discourse in terms of its independency. This article analyses its silence upon the orthodoxy among the Muslim community and their activism through social media to continue this movement.
Inequality of School Enrolment and Literacy Status Between Scheduled Tribe and Non-Scheduled Tribe Community: A Critical Study in West Bengal
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Historically, the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community is deprived of primary education and suffers from a lower literacy rate in India, particularly in West Bengal. From this perspective, the study aims to find the trend of the primary gross-enrolment ratio (PGER) of 7–14 years aged children and the overall literacy rate in the ST community as compared to its non-ST counterpart. The study also focuses on gendered literacy disparity in ST and non-ST communities. Gendered literacy disparity is measured using modified Sopher’s disparity index of Kundu and Rao (Educational planning: A long term perspective, 1986 [pp. 435–466], NIEPA). Besides, paired sample t-test is applied for the empirical result. Apart from this, a comparative analysis of rural and urban Bengal is made. The study reveals that in India as a whole and particularly in West Bengal, the literacy rate and PGER have yet not achieved its desired goal. The condition was worse in the ST community in the previous census and has created a wide PGER and literacy gap with the non-ST community. Gendered literacy disparity exists in both the communities, though the level is very high in the ST community.
Historically, the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community is deprived of primary education and suffers from a lower literacy rate in India, particularly in West Bengal. From this perspective, the study aims to find the trend of the primary gross-enrolment ratio (PGER) of 7–14 years aged children and the overall literacy rate in the ST community as compared to its non-ST counterpart. The study also focuses on gendered literacy disparity in ST and non-ST communities. Gendered literacy disparity is measured using modified Sopher’s disparity index of Kundu and Rao (Educational planning: A long term perspective, 1986 [pp. 435–466], NIEPA). Besides, paired sample t-test is applied for the empirical result. Apart from this, a comparative analysis of rural and urban Bengal is made. The study reveals that in India as a whole and particularly in West Bengal, the literacy rate and PGER have yet not achieved its desired goal. The condition was worse in the ST community in the previous census and has created a wide PGER and literacy gap with the non-ST community. Gendered literacy disparity exists in both the communities, though the level is very high in the ST community.
Reverse Discourse, Queering of Self-Determination, and Sexual Ruptures: Abdullah Öcalan, the Kurdistan Workers Party, and the Problem of the Nation-State
Policy advice utilization in Belgian ministerial cabinets: the contingent importance of internal and external sources of advice
International Review of Administrative Sciences, Ahead of Print.
Ministerial cabinets hold a central place in the Belgian politico-administrative system, carrying out the bulk of policy formulation. However, they do not operate in isolation and rely on other actors of the policy advisory system for information supply and advice. They request, receive and use various advisory inputs. This article investigates how ministerial advisers utilize policy advice when they formulate policies. Based on a unique survey targeting ministerial cabinet members, it shows that policy advice utilization varies according to the source and its location in the policy advisory system. The sample consists of ministerial advisers from 11 ministerial cabinets in the two Belgian federated entities’ governments of Wallonia and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Ministerial advisers still predominantly use advice from the civil service, which points to the continued importance of advice provision from internal, in-house sources. However, advice from external actors – such as trade unions, civil society or consulting firms – have been observed to have rather high repercussions on policy formulation activities too. Advisory bodies appear to be very much active in supplying advice, but this same advice does not yield comparatively higher utilization scores.Points for practitionersThis study focuses on policy advice utilization by members of ministerial cabinets in Belgium, especially when they formulate policies. It shows that internal, in-house sources remain important advice-providers and their advisory inputs still abundantly feed into the policy work carried out at the level of government. However, this article provides evidence that external sources might also supply advice that directly finds its way to decision-makers working in ministerial cabinets and that have considerable repercussions at that level too. This is the case for advice from trade unions, (organized) civil society or consulting firms, among others. Quite importantly for practitioners, our results suggest that ministerial advisers sometimes prefer controlling advisory exchanges and running separate consultations with one stakeholder at a time, instead of having to deal with collective, internal institutions that represent multiple interests, like advisory bodies. We did not observe striking differences in the degree of utilization between solicited and unsolicited advice, which means that for civil servants or stakeholders, sending policy advice previously unrequested by ministerial cabinets is not necessarily a fruitless strategy to follow.
Ministerial cabinets hold a central place in the Belgian politico-administrative system, carrying out the bulk of policy formulation. However, they do not operate in isolation and rely on other actors of the policy advisory system for information supply and advice. They request, receive and use various advisory inputs. This article investigates how ministerial advisers utilize policy advice when they formulate policies. Based on a unique survey targeting ministerial cabinet members, it shows that policy advice utilization varies according to the source and its location in the policy advisory system. The sample consists of ministerial advisers from 11 ministerial cabinets in the two Belgian federated entities’ governments of Wallonia and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Ministerial advisers still predominantly use advice from the civil service, which points to the continued importance of advice provision from internal, in-house sources. However, advice from external actors – such as trade unions, civil society or consulting firms – have been observed to have rather high repercussions on policy formulation activities too. Advisory bodies appear to be very much active in supplying advice, but this same advice does not yield comparatively higher utilization scores.Points for practitionersThis study focuses on policy advice utilization by members of ministerial cabinets in Belgium, especially when they formulate policies. It shows that internal, in-house sources remain important advice-providers and their advisory inputs still abundantly feed into the policy work carried out at the level of government. However, this article provides evidence that external sources might also supply advice that directly finds its way to decision-makers working in ministerial cabinets and that have considerable repercussions at that level too. This is the case for advice from trade unions, (organized) civil society or consulting firms, among others. Quite importantly for practitioners, our results suggest that ministerial advisers sometimes prefer controlling advisory exchanges and running separate consultations with one stakeholder at a time, instead of having to deal with collective, internal institutions that represent multiple interests, like advisory bodies. We did not observe striking differences in the degree of utilization between solicited and unsolicited advice, which means that for civil servants or stakeholders, sending policy advice previously unrequested by ministerial cabinets is not necessarily a fruitless strategy to follow.
Caste and Premarket Discrimination: Access to Civic Amenities and Healthcare Facilities in Rural Punjab
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Access to civic amenities improves the quality of life as well as helps to overcome various health-related problems. The focus of the present study is to examine the caste-based premarket discrimination concerning access to civic amenities and healthcare facilities in rural Punjab. The primary data, collected from 12 villages of Punjab during the year 2015–2016, is analysed applying the univariate analysis technique. The analyses prove that the Scheduled Castes (SC), compared with non-SC households, have low access to the basic civic amenities of safe drinking water, drainage and toilet facility. A similar disadvantageous position of SC vis-à-vis non-SC households exists in rural Punjab so far as the ownership of the durable household assets of entertainment, household utilities, tools of information and communication technology, and means of transportation are concerned. The SC and non-SC were found to have equal access to the available healthcare facilities; nevertheless, both caste groups received different treatment from the medical staff.
Access to civic amenities improves the quality of life as well as helps to overcome various health-related problems. The focus of the present study is to examine the caste-based premarket discrimination concerning access to civic amenities and healthcare facilities in rural Punjab. The primary data, collected from 12 villages of Punjab during the year 2015–2016, is analysed applying the univariate analysis technique. The analyses prove that the Scheduled Castes (SC), compared with non-SC households, have low access to the basic civic amenities of safe drinking water, drainage and toilet facility. A similar disadvantageous position of SC vis-à-vis non-SC households exists in rural Punjab so far as the ownership of the durable household assets of entertainment, household utilities, tools of information and communication technology, and means of transportation are concerned. The SC and non-SC were found to have equal access to the available healthcare facilities; nevertheless, both caste groups received different treatment from the medical staff.