Ashima Goyal () (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research)
Abstract
The paper examines the division of tasks required between politicians and bureaucrats to run an effective rural employment guarantee scheme (EGS) in India, in the context of Indian history and habits. There are still weaknesses in the incentive structure of the new nationwide EGS. First, there is no guarantee that high quality durable assets will be produced. Second, the role of the bureaucrat in the EGS is not clearly defined. A number of analytical results are obtained. A major one is giving the bureaucrat a long-term task (durable assets) as his objective will ensure the completion of both tasks, since effort must be allocated to the short-term task (employment) in order to achieve the long-term task. More power to the local populace and politicians will ensure that local needs, including employment are met. The results, together with an examination of the interactions between politicians and bureaucrats, village self-government, and the water economy in India, imply that an EGS with good incentive properties has the potential to reverse corruption of the executive, and vitalize village self-government. Lower level politicians are more accountable to the public. The tradition of voluntary labour associated with cooperative village management of the water economy, can make local resources available to extend the cyclical EGS. Higher own resources at stake will improve the efficiency of resource utilization and the quality of work done.
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Length: 29 pages Date of creation: Nov 2005 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:ind:igiwpp:2005-008
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Find related papers by JEL classification: O10 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General O53 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Models of Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
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References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Alberto Alesina & Guido Tabellini, 2003.
"Bureaucrats or Politicians?,"
Working Papers
238, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
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