Patronage as Politics in South Asia

Anastasia Piliavsky

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781107056084
• eBook ISBN: 9781316156681
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• The Idea of Patronage in South Asia
• Democracy as Patronage
• Prospects and Disappointments
• Contributors
• Bibliography
• Index