State Processes, Ideas, and Institutional Change: The Case of the Right to Information Act in India

Historically, the Indian state has embraced the norm of secrecy. Yet despite this legacy, in 2005 India passed the Right to Information Act (RTIA). What explains this institutional change in India’s information regime? The mainstream literature overlooks significant historical evidence, which I deploy to demonstrate that ideas on openness emerged as part of the opposition politics within the state after independence in 1947, gradually and incrementally became part of mainstream politics, and eventually led to the RTIA. I propose a largely endogenous model of institutional change that builds on gradual changes to finally reach a threshold—or tipping point.

国家过程、观念与制度变迁：印度的信息权利法案

关键词：印度，信息权利，制度转变，观念，国家。

从历史看，印度国家奉行秘密这个规范。然而尽管有这个传承，2005年印度还是通过了信息权利法案。印度信息体制这个制度变化的原因是什么？ 主流文献忽视了一个重要的历史证据；我在文中会展示，作为国家内反对政治的一部分，关于（信息）开放的观念在1947年后兴起，渐进式地变成主流政治的一部分，并最终导致了信息权利法案。我提出主要是内生转折点的制度变化模型，它建立在渐进式改变之上并最终达到一个边界阈值，或称转折点。

Translated from English by Li Guo