Rapporteur’s NotesWorkshop on Interpretive Approaches to Political Economy

University of VirginiaFebruary 2-3, 2018

byMatthew Frierdich

Kristen Monroe, “ How Emotions, Perceptions, and Identity Shape Political Action” Discussant Remarks

o “Emotional power of intellectual study, shedding light on what it means to be human”

o Psychology for understanding political leadership; moral imagination and identity; narrative (method and touchstone)

o Psychology Charismatic leader, capacity to intensify/defuse hatred

How and why? Relying on Rudolphs’ as a counter method Example of xenophobic leaders How do leaders drain potency of hatred? Where are we

supposed to look to see these leaders as distinct?o Moral imagination

Capacity to imagine what it would be like to live the lives of others, their compulsions… moral duty to respond!

“deviation from ‘traditional’ [conventional?] paradigm” Capacity to shake it off is rooted in the self: this juxtaposition is

a bit too stark Gandhi, rooted in strands of tradition, but not applied

consistently… was Gandhi thinking for himself, dispassionate reflection? Or reconnecting with Indian paradigms of history?

Dichotomy between charismatic leaders and violence? Or a range of possibilities of the utopic/dystopic? Not always a binary, what does this say about leaders?

Connected/distinct from political responsibility qua action… visions of future motivated by moral imagination and responsibility to action in terms of relationship?

Using the word “dehumanization”: Mechanisms that trigger this phenomenon? Connection to humanistic social science?

o Narrative as the altruistic tool of social science Transgression of norms, rather than embracing paradigms Story of coming to altruism is how breakthrough research… how do

scholars take on this capacity? Breaking through the disciplinary blinders? Elaborate more on this academic story

Turn to the “real world” in narrative, the unifying thread. Explicitly thematize this at the beginning of the paper.

Stories for understanding action, questions of human existence

Sparking connection… Otto Springer quote at the beginning. Compassion making connection possible.

Group Commentso Thoughts about Rudolphs’ personal feelings/emotions and implications on

political choices This was not apparent to family; psychoanalytic approaches in work,

but they did not do this personal work (or at least discussed with family) … or their own way of doing the introspection was their work?

o If there is a humanizing aspect to narrative, then why do narratives tip in a moral direction?

Compassion that trumps rational interest? Why if both things are going on? What is the mechanism? Not the sequence, but mechanism?

What does narrative reveal that other data does not? What is peculiar to narrative as a form of data/data-collection?

o Questions of embodiment and relationship to emotions, Gandhi’s bodily practices, cultural context of India broke with psychoanalytic tradition

o Review the work on compassion and affect theory… not only about different kinds of emotions, but who gets included in the expression and scope of those emotion

E.g. love of nation, circumscribed…not a choice between good or bad emotions; rather who counts as worthy?

o Discursive Institutionalist: beyond ideas by using compassion as an analytic category. Interlocutors are rational choice institutionalists, saying they are wrong

Would love to hear more of this interaction, this dialogue between competing claims. Responses you get to your work? Relationship to the discipline?

Can you persuade them?o Comment on how Rudolphs’ perceptual/interpretive approach and its

relevant for contemporary political science How to understand human connections Looking at the world through experience, narrative gives access Elaborate (1): Humanization-altruism/dehumanization, what are the

consequences of both sides of this analysis for social science thinking Elaborate (2): Emotions and connections and their importance of

leadership… how does this relate to charisma? Modern democratic politics increases scope for charisma (a la Max Weber) … evocation of (sub)conscious prejudices

Vivien A. Schmidt, “Interpretivism in Motion: Discursive Institutionalism as the Fourth ‘New’ Institutionalism”

Discussant Commentso First section makes valuable contribution, it situates Rudolphs’ work in the

debates of their time wello Philosophy of science/of social science

Combine with first section Rudolphs’ disappear in this section, less contextualization… needs to

be added in all sections Try to condense, if possible

o Discussion of discursive institutionalism Power, ideas; helpful updated, clarified these conceptual ideas well Political science has gone far beyond focus on institutionalism that

was essential in 1990s; your work on discourse has relevance for issues beyond institutionalism

Tying to this neo-institutionalist turn is looking backward too much; look forward toward current focus

Habermas and rational discourse How does discourse contributes to political agency: people

gain a critical detachment and develop perspectives to act to bring about change

Discourse today (Trump phenomenon): importance of emotion and types of political exchanges that could be incorporated into what you are doing… Be conscious of limits and justify focus, or somehow acknowledge benefits of included these expansions

o In the conclusion section Editorial comment: interested in 1) clearly state what your

perspective adds to Rudolphs’ interpretivism and 2) what you think discursive intercourse adds more broadly to comparative politics

o Looked at this work in context of other pieces Rudolphs’ “situated knowledge” and discussion of institutionalism

differ over engaging with position and method disposition. Discursive Institutionalism an umbrella concept (situated knowledge

is not) … what is gained? What is lost? Mixed methods are not really mixed, more like salad dressing,

used on top… is Discursive overly ambitious? Emphasis on interactions in institutional change

Recognition of others ideas and actors? Cannot occur in isolation, actors who wield power in ideas, must recognize other ideas

o An acknowledgment of the other is vital to determining the type of interaction that occurs, and which type of interaction leads to change.

o You are already doing this, but inserting recognition might help to disaggregate subcategory, add some kind of theoretical clarity, situating these ideas further

Group Commentso Power and power of ideas, disaggregating power of ideas, Steven Lukes

[Power: A Radical View, 1974] (3 dimensions of power… Decision-making, non-decision-making, and ideological)

o Retitle: situating the Rudolphs’ work of 21st century…? Keep everything that John wanted to get rid of Change conclusion to how the Rudolphs’ inspired your work, and look

at all that came out of it! Situated knowledge differing from discursive institutionalism

How does this help us situate what the Rudolphs’ have to say This section first, and how the Rudolphs’ dealt with the

scientism of the time Integrating discourses, first section as a model, more

condensed Perhaps do more with perestroika?

o [What are the methodological implications of “situated knowledge”?] E.g. vernacular press says about agriculture, what English language

press says can be very different Is the frame of this method or interpretation accessible? What are the

limits of knowing the effect? Rudolph’s as interpretive, scientific, distinguished from relativists Faith in “more general” theoretical observations Five minutes to discuss this question

Narrative as a method is important Interviews as a method are important

o What, in fact, do more “conventional” social science methods miss by marginalizing those types of methods?

Intentionality in actions, rather than a simple inferenceo Counter claim: Causality and intention may not be that

important, can be inferred without appealing to purpose… What can we say that meaning/intention adds?

o There are always multiple forms of interpretation, maybe triangulation matters? Discern which type of theory is more applicable to a given phenomenon.

o Social collectivities give rise to multiple possible actions (evidence of alternative possibilities); intentions tell how sociality translates into action… avoid the other trap of interviews of “taking credit for what happens” … are there other social or political dynamics that caused them to do this? Interplay of biography and history/context.

Where can we go to get “narrative truth”?o Iterative interviews, interviewers seen as “state agents,”

people will say what is “expected,” interview as “act of building trust”

o How are you able to know your respondents? Assuming interviews as “de facto method”

o In conjunction with observation

o Deep immersion, this may be “going away” in current student work

o Not a reflection of “truth” but rather it can tell you about social/power dynamics… how power works, and there are variance, but it gives you a sense of their navigation (the ‘hidden’ transcript)

o Data are social products! Under what conditions are these kinds of information produced? This must be investigated in order to understand the data… this is what we are doing with “situated knowledge”

o Proposing a section/discussion on interviews, conditions of “situated knowledge,” the presence of multiple truths, different layers of understanding (what they think you want to hear is an important piece of information, as well!)

Add to each chapter some methodological reflection, perhaps intro/concluding chapter that pulls these observations together? Chapter on perestroika? Social construction of data?

Niraja Gopal Jayal, In Pursuit of Saraswati? Higher Education and Democracy in India Discussant Comments

o Extending arguments on higher educationo Politicization of education; Marketization; Statization/bureaucratization

Fused with marketization, create new workers for the “new economy” Rudolphs’ missed the fact that bureaucratization is more important

than politicization Higher education symbolizes colonial legacy State ideology, ideology of mobility, knowledge economy ideology Look at these structural features (university as a department of state),

how curriculum decided by bureaucratic actors, government controlling salaries of teachers, uses resources to control (centralization and micro-management)

Subtle suggestion that there is an interested created among the teachers, bureaucratization, and funding their “personal advancements”

o Critical commentary Main argument of paper

Centralization serves the political masters or bureaucratic masters… is it a state-centric argument or a fusion of interests? Is it a symptom of politicization?

Bring in James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State (1999) on creating public failures: administrative order of society, high modernist ideology of state, authoritarian systems (how do democratic

states reorder society through education?), civil society (internal capacities of universities incapacitated, weakening)

o Logic of statization distinct from politicization Policy feedback literature

Not only politics drive policies, but policies drive politics How various implementations of higher education policies

have created new political interests Comparison of state project within India have escaped these

processes, at the local level have the institutional design avoided these? What kind of state project? Variation within India, confirming or disconfirming/nuance?

Page 9: “structural weakness of university” Problems in the state, a “top down story” … expanding the

mutual benefit of bureaucratization… competing interests in favor of bureaucratization with the university system, are alternative models or self-governance from within even possible? (IITs and IIMs)

More on marketization, perhaps more for book project? Group Comments

o To the extent that the higher education system is autonomous… Rudolphs’ concerned with education as a force for centrism/moderation… Higher education as state project, but at same time, is it something that centers? Is moderation effect absent?

o Emphasizing interpretive methods and their politics… using reports/commissions, utility of state produced archives, elaborate on the methodological reflection (help to tie work on India with broader theoretical work)

Insights would be helpful to where work would connect with Rudolphs’

o Aside from centralization, Rudolphs’ talked about state as “third actor”, managing labor and perhaps capital… state extending control to other sectors

o Rudolphs’ essay of bureaucracy and bureaucratization Key argument: bureaucracy generates its own forms of power;

specialization creates more power for bureaucrats Is the bureaucratization creating power for bureaucrats or is it a

process that creates instrumental control for those in political sector (as a means of extending control)

o Two contradictory interpretations (this is Rudolphian!) ... Two understandings that capture different aspects of complex processes

o Autonomy and politicization: knowledge commission opposed, retaining autonomy of institutions, which ought not be isolated from broader democratization process

Can we think of diversity with affirmative action, maintaining autonomy from state, retaining the idea of university as separate from state?

Conforming to national policy is not giving up on autonomy What does autonomy mean? What are its limits?

Christophe Jaffrelot and Kalaiyarasan Arasan, “When Dominant Castes Ask for Positive Discrimination: Socio-Economic Differentiation and the Uneven Resilience of Caste as a

Demand Group” Discussant Comments

o Bullock Capitalists Small holders, beneficiaries of land reform, odd combination of labor

and capital rolled into one Rudolphs’: Subsumed different cleavages, rolled up lots of inequality,

a cross-cutting cleavage which could splinter easilyo Not that much overlap in bullock capitalists and OBC

Dominant class perceiving to be left behindo Draw a parallel to Rudolphs’ work

Intentionality as caste association, voluntary and ascriptive, strategic interests

Connecting with the idea of malleability of casteo Old school model of farmer mobilization was more fragmented, more

bounded in state There are shared economic interests in the rural area, basis for shared

economic grievance, but it is more fractured This isn’t necessarily a story of a neglect of rural sector, but rather

growing inequality within rural India, as well. Creating uneven terrain in rural India itself (state welfare schemes, etc.)

o The sense of neglect/left behind, is not uniform in the dominant caste, this “dominant” category must be disaggregated

o Hone in on concluding questions Will this differentiation of dominant class along class lines weaken

caste identification? Electoral behavior? If we see weakening of caste solidarity, why?

Class differentiation leading to caste solidarity, but the flipside we can see the emergence of new class solidarities, subsume caste solidarities,

Thinking about Gujarat elections, Patel 24-year-old activist in 2015 leading the up and coming demanding OBC status… perfect illustrates story

o But there is a subtle shift in the language that was used, reporting talked about rhetoric of the election point to the emergence of new class solidarities “not one section is happy with the government except for crony model…” making broad cross-cutting economic demands…

election on the Congress Platform, looking across caste to frame electoral demands, language shift…

o Suggests a moment that class was playing a role beyond differentiation, creating a language for new solidarities across caste lines

“misses the narrative and common link of class” Group Comments

o More on how class differentiation influences political action… Differentiation in how much action we are seeing, which suggests that we may need more “smoking gun” evidence to point towards casual mechanisms [perhaps more qualitative data?

o Unpacking caste as “status group” … combines two analytically different political factors: identity [mechanism of language] and social network [connections/trust/communication and the underpinning of collective action]

Modernity of Tradition: Caste identities become vehicles of democratic participation, increased democratic participation pushes towards hierarchical disruption… paradox

Patel as caste organization: repressing affirmative action, but now 2017 mobilizing to expand affirmation action… yes, changes in economy, but points more towards caste as social network.

Increasing inequality of Patels… wealthy Patels holding up these economic demands, but transforming the types of connections (and yet the caste holds together!)… thinking more about economic differentiation is a way of getting a handle of distinction between ideas/language and social network

o Riker, “new issue space” … Emergence of other groups that are demanding public goods New issue space has emerged in Indian politics Is there a difference in the dominant caste in advanced

Western/Southern state versus the “backward” states? Is the relative disparity more stark?

Dynamics of the bottom castes, relational dynamics, cause the conflict generation?

o What do we mean by caste? Caste politics? We always have increasing class inequality issue, the expansion of

caste politics (adoption of caste by Communist parties, etc.) … benefits of caste system, but challenging caste system as well

Sexuality rights, Maoists, Hindu rights, coming together are all in order to avoid caste politics?

Frank Hoeber, Prologue: A Bibliographic Note Discussant Comments

o Opened the paper in wonderful way, highlighting relevance of Rudolphs’ interviewing Nehru

Importance of interviews Shows their methodology in action Scrupulousness and ingenuity

o Shows Rudolphs’ with strong woman role-models Environments were patriarchal, difficult for women in profession Enabling/encouraging approaches that centered women and their

intellectual contributions Role as mentors to young women Suzanne: role as women was a problem that others needed to deal

with, not an issue for her; Lloyd: supportive, following Suzanneo Mentors/colleagues at Harvard and useful exchanges

Promoted different aspects of thinking E.g. David Reisman

o Discussion of Dunster House (seminal influence on connection with students, intellectual community development)

o Illness and persistence, attitude of maximizing ability, dedication to scholarship

o Issues/critical editorial suggestions Rudolphs’ dissertations topics, both did not begin studying India

American public administration? Congress Party in India? Transition, Lloyd’s study influenced his work on India? Summer studying survey research, American behavior

tradition, acknowledging survery limits Suzanne’s graduation for high school/college Suzanne president of Association for Asian Studies (1986?) and APSA

in 2003… was anyone president of both? Commitment to integrating different fields?

Liminal life between many places (Chicago, Vermont, Jaipur), but staying “present in the moment…” what part of material goes with them to keep them in the moment? What “travels with them”?

Working relationship between the two… E.g. Weber’s… does this serve as a model

Develop interviews, transcribing, interpretation of interviews… throw more light on role of transcriber of the Rudolphs’, interpret meanings about who they were and what they did… a window into interview techniques and their work

Interpretation came much latter: in the field, take in the data in a deep and systematic way… and then interpretation comes much later

Given the situated knowledge, and the role in Association of Asian Studies, bring these two aspects out

o Experiences with Rudolphs’, encourage people to point out experiences that ought to be added to story

o Suzanne table cloths, Lloyd’s punch cards, 50 boxes of books taken to India for the year

o Would appreciate help with generating knowledge about Association of Asian Studies

Group Commentso Students do an intellectual biography to see who is inspired and tell us how

their ideas came to be… This chapter gives us that flavor! Cognitive ideas, but really host of non-rational ideas

o Social, food, the gathering… wrapped up in the intellectual More mention of Suzanne in college, Lloyd in faculty, hierarchies… People who are still around that remembered Suzanne’s contribution

as chair in political science at University of Chicagoo In terms of archives/papers… where have they been given? Already at library

at University of Chicago, the rest is still outside, waiting to be brought ino Interview with Sue in the 1990s, breaking the glass ceiling in APSA

She was not deterred, but aware of “special situations” she was getting into as women… going to Harvard club, walked up and David Reisman got her in, there was not one word spoken when she came in

Lloyd made issue of Sue not being on the faculty at graduate school, talking with female graduate students about their problems

Sue crying herself to sleep after being denied to stay with Lloyd… got her faculty spot after offered Smith College presidency

APSA: Sue would not allow the committee to nominate her, but she eventually got presidency, called Sue to tell her about presidency of APSA at 4AM… She never got mad, she just went around the obstacles “I never really had much discrimination… ‘I was there, I remember what you went through’… she smiled and said “Yes that’s the way I choose to remember it”

Leela Fernandes, “Inequality, Interpretation and the Political Economy of the Indian State”

Discussant Commentso Opening comments

Experience caste different depending on social-position Class politics demobilized, different kind of class politics is possible,

though Translation itself between class/culture Language of class was invisible because meaning-making in culture

only, articulating class position through the cultural meaning-making… how new interests groups are forming… becoming classes through culture!

o Critical comments 1) Culture needs to be more disaggregated for analytical clarity 2) Mobilization of culture, organization of culture by political actors,

etc. new theoretical space needs a politics variable for how cultural entities are mobilized… not only about idea, practices, etc. but also organization

3) What does structure or material interests do to culture? What does class play in transforming the cultural identity of any group?

4) Cultural, caste, gender, region, nationalism… different implications for interactions… culture could have at least 4 different dimensions…

Possible ways to disaggregate culture:o Culture is homogenous?o Symbolic/belief systems?o Cultural perceptions of actors? [Meaning-making]

Benedict Anderson “Invention of Identities,” how community begins to think of itself as a community/cultural identity… structural basis for how class is invented

Clash of identity… when do these perceptions/mobilizations conflict?

Organizational variables are missing; political variable of collective action piece of the puzzle is also missing…

What is the meaning of “mutual constitution”? Which would Fernandes privilege?

Culture and structure work separately, but interact Cultural identity fractures class identity Hybrid or liminal notion of class/culture

Regional identity, this may hide the class identity This relationship is much different from gender… therefore all

other identities being ascriptive and class being separate needs more description.

Group Commentso Framing of structural analysis/cultural analysis was great, wonder about the

literature on class formation (Katz and Nelson, Working-Class Formation, 1986), if it would be helpful?

o Vivian Schmidt’s discursive institutionalism might apply to what you are saying… if you reject it, it would be interesting to know why or if it is helpful, how so?

o Rudolphs’: pluralism of modernity, context must be taken into account, different trajectories of change

o Collective action does not make class. Not convinced that the collective action taking place is class

Need to clarify, convince, that we are actually looking at class: it is a mixture of culture and class, some degree of falsifiability would be beneficial

As an example: cultural festivals in Bengal, differentiation from managers, distinguishing themselves along class lines

Counter: in the case of working class politics, the collective action expression is linked to the class structure and labor market, scholarly goal to problematize the category of class and the historical versions of class as a problematic historical category… one piece/variable cannot be pulled out and retain its sensibility.

Argument for this way of thinking about class formation needs to be included in the chapter, need to explicate about the model, what class is, how it is transformed, etc.

o Discussion of liminality/hybridity border crossing and moral choice… Translators, implication of a self-

confusion… Paper clarified hybridity well!o Page 24-8

Hierarchy of methods, arguing against dominant methods misses on the nuance that has emerged in more recent discourse

Quant methods are more widely known today, with a greater appreciation for its limitations

All methods are vulnerable to misrepresentation. “No one kind of work can answer everything” is a recurring message in political science education.

o Is the process by which culture/caste/religious formation the same process by which economic/class formation takes place? Is there an overlap between the two? If not, then when we are integrating the two, what does that mean for your project (combining the “labors” or processes of formation)?

Ronald J. Herring and Rina Agarwala, “The Uses and Limits of Class Analytics for Indian Politics: From the Centrist Dismissal to Bullock Capitalists”

Discussant Commentso Class salient more of the time than many of us would think

Defining class mobilizing in more grandiose form than we typically see

o Rudolphs’: Indian state as third actor, marginalized the space where dynamics of labor/capital would battle… result make capital/labor clients of the state

Take as starting pointo State is less autonomous; class is salient

Was this idea ever true? Class takes more subtle form Looking at European class forms will miss much “below the Rudolphs’ gaze” Think of a broader way of evaluating class politics (a scale/scope

question!)o Much has changed in the Indian state, no longer centrist, to the right now.

Loss of state’s autonomy to private capital “The state is no longer marginalizing class politics, but manipulating

class politics” This creates the conditions for resistance

o Rightward inching of the state Labor law reform, taking away its teeth from enforcement

“flexibilization,” never overtly attacking, veneer of democratic respectability

Not uniform across states, where the locus is shifting… this is where we see the resistance emerging… double movement, conditions for “potential” class mobilization

Expansion of social welfare spending and programs: at this moment of state “pulling back” when we see expansion and rights legislation… the countermovement within the state itself!

Double movement in a Bismarckian sense… State steps into class system failures, demobilize class opposition

Continued resilience of labor (e.g. union affiliation to win national elections) … informal class politics, below the radar

Situate this better: comparison drawn to bullock capitalist to think about strength/limitations of organizing in the informal sector (set this up sooner to help the reader)

Both informal workers and bullock capitalists were both capital and labor, contradictory class position

o Think about interest rates and the contradictory class interests

Think about the lessons of bullock capitalists and old-style politics (caste fragmentation, fracturing of movements, etc.)

o Role of identity politics? Bt Cotton and farmer resistance: “weapons of the weak” 5% of

GDP connected to cotton, class action as a demand in short-term, at the same time an illustration of the failure of the state itself. (Seeds of Suicide)

o Naxalite insurgency Where does this show up?

Group Commentso Argument that your point about state moving rightward, bring in the

industrial capitalist as well. A new compact between industrial capital and the state

Increased revenue, channeled to industrial capital and right-based political interests… you must give us the growth

Demand on the state to help get more export markets State transformed into generating more revenues to give to business,

fragmentation among to the industrial classes (story of cotton bring in textile industry as well)

In every sector of industrial economy, internal divisions create new relationships to/with the state

o Informal labor: there is more to be said Neoliberal state’s demand for flexible labor, too focused on

registered/formal only What about agitational society? Spontaneous occupation of land?

Unmanageable street markets? Slums? Illegality is forcing the state to back off of class enforcement… not organized, but something

spontaneous (while still acknowledging brokers), not just workers but what about the others?

Not the state taking advantage of informal labor, but rather the division between formal/informal sector labor

o Part on labor, too much agency to class groups Bullock capitalists as a class for itself, but must ask the same question

of state/labor as actors… is the state a “state for itself”? Labor “a class for itself”? Really making policy with an eye towards controlling labor itself? Omniscient neoliberal eye to undercut the labor movement… what is undercutting the power of labor is somewhat policy/politics, but mostly economic/market forces…

Too much cohesion given to the developmental state, which ignores the contentious politics

New set of politics that are being fought for by activists, etc. scattershot claim making, how will this become aggregated? Takes on a class narrative? Maybe. (dilution of the class struggle?)

o Suggestions for strengthening the paper’s argumentative frame Self-conscious about framing of study that emphasizes what you are

doing in making a claim about class Paragraph: not taking the easy cases here… Then, say, perhaps the

most difficult case of all is the informal sector… because they are spread all over, conditions for organizing are not strong… the class politics still appear, though.

No mention of specific organizations that are formed, no specific policies that are mentioned… include these to talk about the salience of class!

Steven Wilkinson, “India’s Democratic Stability Discussant Comments

o Why military does not interfere in Indian political systemo What are the continued risks to India’s continued civilian dominance over

military? Risk to civil/military relations going forward? Coup-proofing

Not purging senior officers Maintaining military insulation from politics, physical isolation Reducing prestige of military career

Role of federalism, helps to resolve conflicts politically that could otherwise require a military response, multiple poles of authority, counteract central control, reduce incentives for group of leaders to engage in coup

Also, ethnic balancing in army, Congress to moderate conflict, manage caste/linguistic/religious tensions within government, strategies for dealing with domestic conflicts that resist using military

o Critical comments

Draft needs some bridging of the two major parts (why no intervention and threats to democratic stability)

More cogent framing of the issue, perhaps using the first part to outline the Rudolphs’ four arguments, and the second section could be all folded into a response

Summary of the Rudolphs’ thought on federalism was fuzzy in its logic, there needs to be clearer explanation of disincentivizing effects on decentralized power

Also, related issue: how federalism might increase the risk of a secession, or does it embolden the claims for autonomy by minority groups?

The case of Pakistan: described as a centralized system, but on paper it is federalism. What works in India that didn’t work in Pakistan? Linguistic relationships and collaboration?

Regional study standpoint: Sri Lanka is a unitary system. What happens here with unstable systems and violent uprising?

Rise of the BJP and threat to federalism What is the tipping point when the BJP becomes too powerful?

What is the exact threat? What does their dominance threaten? Maoist/Naxalite insurgency

Government rather than relying on army has invested in central reserve police forces. So how does this fit into the framework of your paper? Scope of the conflict seems to be important as it may draw the army in?

Considering broader institutional factors (e.g. party formation) or central government system, economic system, that are not present in Pakistan, India is able to become a political bureaucratization

For example, the resources were kept in India after partition, and Pakistan’s budget was very focused on military and not development

Group Comments o Coalition politics and regionally based constituencies, militate against

military intervention? Contingency of political stability in India Deep bench of Congress’s leaders at the regional level

o There’s not conclusion to the paper… please add one. Wrap up the title with a conversation about the counterfactual of how India differs from Pakistan

o Possibility that Pakistan’s allegiance to the United States and international relationships shaping… Lasswell’s Garrison State?

The look at military dimension underplayed the political dimension, and the political comparativists underplayed the military dimension

John Echeverri-Gent and Kamal Sadiq, “Situated Knowledge in the Study of Social Change and the State”

Discussant Comments

o (1) Overview of Rudolphs’ work/look at subset Extending Bavarian tradition for specific configurations of class,

status, religion Keep quotes from Rudolphs’ up front Discussion of Rudolphs’ issues with traditional data broken down into

5-6 clear points… model your presentation of this off the survey research section

o (2) Make an original argument Section on interviews/surveys/opinions polls ought to be cleaned up Section on area studies could be cut, if necessary Consider adding the following:

How well did these theoretically contentions hold up in hindsight? Fading of the autonomous state paradigm…

o Extension of Weber’s modelso Rudolphs’ bullock capitalist identity (how persistent

was it really, or was it a reflection of the time?)o You will also be able to flag some of the differences

between the authors in your collection, need not be agreement, highlight different responses of authors (e.g. how autonomous is the state?)

Merit in referencing the policy feedback literature, which represents the Rudolphs’ thinking before this was a distinct literature (e.g. the ways incremental reforms were changing demand groups)

Big thing missing: a discussion of the physical place of India (state of Rajasthan, upper caste culture), useful for highlighting the particular place in which the study of social sciences/humanities was shaped by this situated space

o Their understanding of India universities “decayed” was because of their close observation of Rajasthan’s university

o Also could look at how over 50 years, they used the same material to address different literatures/ideas

o (3) Introduce the reader to the nature of the chapters in the text Good job, definitely will change as a result of conversations Either less description and boil it down, or explain more and develop

the idea throughout Group Comments

o The idea least consistent with their work: Bullock capitalists Never found anyone who identified themselves this way… it is a type

that may be accurate figure, but it is a deductive concept that is being applied to a society… neither their identity nor relationship in society is through this lens…

Thinking about political mobilization: much better understood with institutions and policies, responding to those incentives, rather than

their class position. Organizing through jobs, types of existing networks. Bullock capitalist obscures more than it clarifies.

Counter: Trapped by the gaze of Delhi, building on a rich tradition out of the Marx tradition, “the middle peasant” community leaders experiences the stresses of market society… they often mobilize society! “How come a peon in a district office make more money than a farmer?” Rural leadership organized around land ownership

o Think about the implications for the Rudolphs’ and their study of political science today?

o Aside from bullock capitalist: state as a third actor played a huge role in their academic lives. What part of it holds up, we must engage that centrally… Centrism and moderation has to be developed further: if the state was a third autonomous actor, then it makes sense for why BJP would want to focus on that. How really autonomous if capital/big business can really capture the state? Do the Rajput values diffuse in their way of seeing the world?

o Rudolphs’ concept of moving towards the idea of the regulatory state… function of introduction could take on how the views changed

o Section on the scientific mode needs to be developed, emphasizing the Rudolphs’ discomfort with the positivist model

o Add section on DA-RT “movement”o Interpretive approach is trying to humanize, keep this at the forefronto Shift reflective stance for looking back at the Rudolphs’ work: from what they

were wrong about, to what is the unfulfilled agenda, the unanswered questions, the continued richness… how do the Rudolphs’ continue to set an agenda going forward

o Being situated in Chicago, and what the University of Chicago affected their work: the distinctiveness of what it is like to teach, cross-disciplinary core. Force people to teach outside their comfort zones

Would their work has been as theoretically rich without Chicago? COSAS, distributes resources to South Asian Studies…