Everyday Mediation: The Politics of Public Service Delivery in Gujarat,India |
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| Authors: | Ward Berenschot |
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| Institution: | (ward.berenschot@gmail.com) is a researcher at the Van Vollenhoven Institute, Leiden University (Steenschuur 25, 2311 ES Leiden, the Netherlands) specializing in identity politics and local democracy in India and Indonesia. His monograph, Riot Politics: India's Communal Violence and the Everyday Mediation of the State is forthcoming. |
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| Abstract: | This article follows a municipal councillor in Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India) on his daily routine in order to explore the various ways in which politicians in India operate as mediators between state institutions and citizens. Political mediation is deeply entrenched in the procedures, policies and habits that guide the daily functioning of Gujarat's state institutions. This article argues that this institutionalization of political mediation is the outcome of a dialectic between the limited capacity of the state to provide public services and the strategies that local politicians employ to win elections. |
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