How Citizen Claim-Making Generates Bureaucratic Responsiveness in Rural India

• In Event: Comparative Perspectives on Bureaucracy in the Global South

Abstract

How can citizens demand accountability from local bureaucrats, who are critical gatekeepers of public resources but who are formally answerable to senior officials and politicians, as well as frequently overburdened? We argue that where bureaucracy is overloaded, citizen “undersight” (bottom-up claim-making) can focus officials’ attention. To generate responsive action, however, citizens must also activate the threat of oversight (scrutiny from higher levels of government). We illustrate our argument in rural India through qualitative fieldwork and a survey of over 1200 block-level personnel in Jharkhand – one of India’s poorest states. Video and vignette experiments, developed with a community media NGO, reveal that citizen testimony increases officials’ attention while engendering empathy, and that the prospect of citizens publicizing complaints increases officials’ responsiveness by activating reputational and career concerns. These findings offer a bureaucrat-centered view of social accountability efforts, and suggest a citizen-led pathway to bureaucratic responsiveness – even for those lacking strong social or political connections.

Authors

• Tanu Kumar, Claremont Graduate University

• Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner, University of Virginia