Diego Maiorano
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Keywords: India, democracy, development, politics, clientelism
DOI: 10.5509/2021943567
CLAIMING THE STATE: Active Citizenship and Social Welfare in Rural India. By Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. xxii, 336 pp. (Tables, figures) US$34.99, paper. ISBN 9781107199750.
DEMANDING DEVELOPMENT: The Politics of Public Goods Provision in India’s Urban Slums. Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics. By Adam Michael Auerbach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. xvii, 304 pp. (Tables, graphs, maps, B&W photos.) US$39.95, paper. ISBN 978-1-108-74133-0.
CLIENTS AND CONSTITUENTS: Political Responsiveness in Patronage Democracies. Modern South Asia. By Jennifer Bussell. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. 390 pp. (Illustrations.) US$105.00, cloth. ISBN 9780190945398.
How do Indian citizens access the state? While a standard answer would be “through patronage,” three recent books show that clientelism, while important, is just part of the story. Rather than passive clients at the mercy of their political patrons, Indian citizens actively engage the state and their representatives to make claims and secure what is due to them. Together, these books not only demonstrate how political the daily life of ordinary citizens is, but also how the Indian state, while far from its Weberian ideal, is much more inclusive than previously thought.
评论文章：印度的诉求政治
关键词：印度；民主；发展；政治；恩庇侍从主义。
印度公民是如何获取国家资源的？尽管常规的答案是“通过恩庇”，但最近出版的三本著作却表明恩庇侍从关系虽然十分重要，但它仅仅是故事的一部分。印度公民并不是消极侍从，只会听凭政治恩主摆布，而是积极接触国家和他们的代表，提出诉求并力求兑现应得的福利。加布莱尔·克鲁克斯·威斯纳的《吾享吾国：印度乡村的积极公民意识和社会福利》展示了乡村居民是如何摸索利用地方政府系统来获取社会福利的。奥尔巴赫的《要求发展：印度城市贫民区公共物品提供的政治》纪录了地方政治工作人员怎样代表他们的邻居提出诉求，并为他们的安置提供基本生活服务。最后，巴塞尔的《侍从与选民：恩庇主义民主国家的政治回应性》令人信服地展示出较高层的代表在为选区选民提供帮助上的重要性。这三本书放在一起，不仅展示出普通公民的日常生活如何具有政治性，而且表明尽管远未达到韦伯的理想类型，印度国家却比从前认为的要更具包容性。
Translated from English by Li Guo
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