The Accommodation of Democracy examines the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, or NREGS, in Uttar Pradesh, one of India’s poorest and most populous states. Introduced through legislation passed by India’s Parliament in 2005, NREGS created a legal guarantee of 100 days of employment at a statutory wage rate for all rural citizens.

Thibaud Marcesse asks why the implementation of this ambitious poverty alleviation programme varies so significantly across states and localities. Drawing on multiple data sources and qualitative fieldwork from a rural district in Uttar Pradesh, he develops the concept of “democratic accommodation” to show how citizens’ claims on the state are shaped not only by economic and status-based inequalities, but also by the actions of local elected officials and bureaucrats.

The book offers a sobering account of democratic practice in rural India. It shows that while local-level democratisation has expanded political participation, it has not necessarily produced deeper democratic empowerment for rural communities.

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Author

Thibaud Marcesse 

Thibaud Marcesse is Assistant Professor of Comparative and South Asian Politics at Boston College. His research focuses on the political economy of development, political institutions, parties and party systems, and local-level democratisation. Before joining Boston College, he was a lecturer at King’s College London. Prior to his academic career, he worked with organisations including UNICEF, the National Democratic Institute, and Chemonics International on projects related to civic education and democratic transitions in Nepal and Haiti. His research has appeared in World Development.

Chair

Sunil Mitra Kumar

Sunil Mitra Kumar is a development economist and Director of the King’s India Institute at King’s College London. His research focuses on causal inference in development using observational data, with particular attention to discrimination and inequality in relation to caste, race, and gender. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Development Studies and Economia Politica. He received his PhD in Economics from the University of East Anglia, an MA in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, and a BA (Hons.) in Mathematics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. Before beginning his PhD, he worked with the Social Initiatives Group of ICICI Bank, then a major funder of non-profit activities in India.