Poverty and the ballot box
Published by Yazad Jal May 16th, 2005 in Economics, GovernanceThe Economist has an interesting article on why democracies are slow in eradicating poverty.
Why might democracy militate against poverty reduction in poor countries? Mr Varshney has two suggestions. First, democracies have a bias towards “direct” methods of tackling poverty, such as subsidies and hand-outs, which, in the long run, are less effective than “indirect” methods—ie, those that generate faster economic growth. In India, this seems undeniably true. Governments have built up whopping budget deficits, thanks largely to subsidies. Many farmers, for example, receive subsidised or free fuel, fertiliser, electricity and water. But little public money is spent on improvements that would do most to lift the growth rate: in infrastructure, primary education and basic health care. Everybody wants better roads, and nobody votes against them. But every politician promises to build them and hardly any do. Cutting subsidies, on the other hand, is a sure vote-loser.Second, the poor are not necessarily a homogenous group. In a democratic system, they may organise themselves along lines other than economic class and “the shared identities of caste, ethnicity and religion are more likely to form historically enduring bonds”. If you are born poor, you may die rich. But your ethnic group is fixed. In India, with its myriad linguistic and caste-based groups, the upshot is a dispiriting beggar-thy-neighbour politics. Just as subsidies are easier to deliver than are roads and schools, so are affirmative-action schemes, giving jobs to members of specified castes.
The relationship between caste and class helps explain the wide regional discrepancies in India. Mr Sen has noted that in one Indian state, Kerala, infant mortality has fallen from 37 per 1,000 in 1979, the same as in China, to ten now, compared with 30 in China. He suggests that the improvement relates directly to India’s democratic strengths. The collapse of the public health system in China in the reform era was possible because there was little political resistance, whereas the deficiencies of Indian primary health care are subject to constant public scrutiny. Mr Varshney points to another explanation for Kerala’s good performance in reducing poverty: the “remarkable merging of caste and class”. This made the poor better-organised and more cohesive. Such a coincidence, he says, is rare. In most places, ethnicity and class cut across each other.
I think most of us look at democracy as some sort of panacea. It’s basically a method to choose a government. If society must have government, as of now, democracy is the best method to select one. It’s a good tool for that limited purpose. If we seek to have a broader goal, that should be freedom–let people be. And limit the powers of government, regardless of whether it is democratic or not.
i don’t like the example of kerala bcoz it is the PERFECT EXAMPLE of spending on education and healthcare but is still MUCH POORER than other southern states.
keralites may be educated but they are all nurses and typists working outside kerala and sending money back.
have you heard of any keralite intellectual, writer or even great filmmaker?
kerala, in the days of the dewan of travancore-cochin was a better place. do read charles allen and sharada dwivedi’s THE LIVES OF THE INDIAN PRINCES for more abt the travancore-cochin state.
Sauvik,
Please!! Kerala has the highest number of Gnanpith award winners (5 I think). Recently, OV Vijayan, one of the greatest of Malayali writers passed away. Adoor Gopalakrishnan is considered one of the greatest of India’s filmmakers. And Kerala has rich tradition of Carnatic music. BTW, I am not a Malayali, but a Tamilian, have never lived in kerala.
That said, there are several things wrong with Kerala. It is an economy supported by repatriation–from the Gulf and from the rest of India. Its own output is not enought o support its lifestyel. But thanks to remittances Malayalis, on the average, can afford a decent lifestyle. Malayalis as people, cultured as they are and industrious and enterprising as they are when outside of Kerala, someohow seem to have not done enough with the resources that Nature has provided them with. If a take a train journey from Kerala to TN or vice versa and pass through the Palghat pass, the change will be dramatic. Yet, TN has higher yield on crops and a vibrant domestic economy.
Regards
Srinivas
Sauvik the Bong, how dare you say such things about Mallus! Even the Punjabi me is outraged at your stereotyping, because I see so many Mallus around me in my college, and who are so brilliant, so talented!
“keralites may be educated but they are all nurses and typists ” - stereotype gained from watching Mallu porno. Which is made by some of the most talented filmmakers in India. How dare you insult the only Indian state with a soft-porn superstar?
sorry abt that. i was wrong.
however, i still maintain that kerala offers the perfect example of mass literacy and successful population control and yet they have mass poverty.
the political economy of socialist democracy is what we were discussing (yazad’s post) and i do believe that socialism fails with dictatorship or democracy: that is, it does not matter if rulers are elected through multiparty democracy or there is one party socialist/communist rule, for the socialist project is doomed to failure.
having said that, i must add that there is a similarity between kerala and bengal, in that both have had democratically elected communist governments: bongs too tend to do better outside bengal though they are not as enterprising as the mallus when it comes to migration. bongland gets little from repatriation of earnings.
It is not surprising that democracy hasnt done well in reducing poverty. Democracy is more concerned with equality, rather than wealth creation. It assumes that political equality, or one vote for everyone, will eventually lead to social, economic and other equalities, or atleast reduce inequality.
But, capitalism not just ignores inequality, it thrives on it. Incentives and its implicit promise that you can be richer than the other guy, so fundamental to capitalism, invariably leads to inequality; in fact, promises inequality. But, we have to accept these, because they are also the drivers of wealth creation.
Now, democracy gives a balance to such a capitalistic system. A good example is the US. Capitalism there should have led to even greater inequality, if not for democracy. Measures such as GI Bill of Rights, Medicare and Affirmative Action - all government intervention in the market - over years show that democracy does indeed reduce inequality.
In India, democracy didnt do well, because its companion was socialism . In a way, socialism is to economics what democracy is to politics. Both are concerned with equality (or distribution of wealth). When both economic and political system are concerned more about distribution of wealth, its creation, naturally, will suffer.
China’s is a different case. The government there, not democratically elected, started its economic reforms in late 70s, took the country towards a kind of capitalism and to greater wealth. There have been a lot of reports on rising inequality there - mostly in the foriegn press - for a good part of the last two decades. (The collapse of the public health system in China in the reform era was possible because there was little political resistance, whereas the deficiencies of Indian primary health care are subject to constant public scrutiny). But, without having to face political pressure, Chinese had a greater control on when and how to deal with inequality. (Benign dictators can do that, cant they?)
So, the answer for the economist’s question (Why are poor democracies not better at ending poverty?) seems to be simple enough. Poor democracies are not better at ending poverty because democracy is not the tool to create wealth, capitalism is.
On Kerala, this might be of interest.
source: http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=90930
I’m a tamil from Bangalore who has spent all my life mostly in Karnataka & TamilNadu. However, I had a chance to spend 3 months in Trivandrum last year, and am currently typing this from a cybercafe in Trivandrum, where I forsee staying another 2 months.
So with my limited Kerala experience of 5 months in 2004-2005, this is what I have to say -
1. Keralites are super-literate, but only in malayalam. To this date, in these 5 months in Trivandrum, I haven’t met a single person who speaks proper English. Not one. They will read/write reams of mallu lit, but can’t converse in English to save their life. I usually get by with one-word symbols, like “bus stand”, “train”, “coffeehouse”, “hotel”, “editing studio”, “film studio”, “matrox”, “firewire” & so on. If you call a studio & say “Do you have a PCI Matrox card ?”, they will make you repeat it 10 times until you realize it makers no sense to them. So I say “Matrox. Yes?”, to which they say “Yes”, or “No”, usually the latter.
2. The film crowd is super conservative. Last year I directed a film where the female character was supposed to peel off her saree ( blouse present ). She absolutely refused. I was quite shocked since the popular impression is that anything goes in the land of mallu-porn. Apparently not. Mallu-porn is made by a very select coterie who operate on the legal fringe, and the actors/actresses in that sector do not intermingle with mainstream. So asking a mainstream actress to disrobe is out of the question. I had to contend with reshooting the scene “by implication” - ie. I asked her to take off the hairpin that connects her saree to her blouse - as the saree falls exposing the blouse, the light goes off, so rest is in viewer’s mind, rather than getting a decent shot of the clevage. These shots are on par in Hindi & Tamil cinema but seem out of the question in Kerala.
3. Overal a very rich state overflowing with imported goodies from UAE. Everybody knows somebody in Bahrain/Qatar/Doha.
4. Monetarily, less corrupt than TN, certainly far less than Bangalore. Ofcourse, the highest bribes I’ve paid are in Aamchi Mumbai, where cops will openly solicit bribes. Bangalore police is quite brazen in this regard too. TN cops are covert & the Keralites quite ashamed of asking bribe!
5. Cost of living very low in Trivandrum. My daily expense, INCLUDING food & lodging in a decent hotel ( no AC, ceiling fan only ), runs me 150 rupees a day. Tell me another city where you can get by for that little.
Cheers,
k
Hi Anon,
I guess ur first point on mallus not speaking english properly is right… but i guess its the pronounciation more than their vocabulary which is in question .. so ur matrox or any other word wud have to be told with a different way to be understood by them .. am a mallu living in chennai….
Sauvik, guess ur talking in terms of economy in the state and the industrial exposure within kerala… but atleast in terms of choice of living of the poor i feel keralites are lot better coz i dont see too many beggers coming at the back of u in kerala…. atleast not as much as i see in chennai…. also people there do have some self respect and do things all things for u at the sight of some money in ur wallet… you can check this out in ur next visit (if u ever do make one) … politics is also much much better than the other states coz people do question to some extent the atrocities done by the government.. where as am living in a place where none of this happens…..
Mr. Ramnath is tying himself in knots and mouthing the same old shibboleths that enabled congress to fool people for 40 years before people saw through the fake equality-inequality socialism-capitalism link propounded by political leaders and duly supported by India’s leftist press. Poverty can only be reduced through creation of high paying jobs. High paying jobs in turn require existence of demand for services and goods that can fetch in revenues to support those jobs. Its a cycle. This cycle begins with demand. It does not begins with a leftist govt. running away with the savings of its people and wasting it on giving subsidies to vote bank farmers and creating mammoth public sector fiefdoms for political bosses and their cronies and justifying it all in the name of a socialist-democratic system that is somehow ensuring equality while keeping every one except the crooks poor and miserable. In other words, wealth and equality are certainly not the by-product of a democratic system that is built upon populism and corruption. India’s democratic system is an example of such a system that has allowed the political class to exist solely for itself and not for the welfare of the people that it shouts slogans about.
Democracy has nothing to do with poverty or wealth, its a romantic idea that appeals to all thinking people but is in practice a very messy system to run properly. Democracy requires existence of an institutional structure of checks and balances to ensure that only those who perform can rule whereas dishonest are eliminated from the political arena. The existence of such an institutional system depends upon how willing the rulers are to let it exist, and how aware and determined the electorate is to punish those who maliciously tamper with it. In India, this institutional system has been thoroughly manipulated and misused by a ruthless though sloganeering political class while a supine, misguided and unaware electorate has allowed it to happen. Press has done only a half-hearted job of informing the electorate of the deficiences in the system, and has generally gone about popularising the necessity of a romantic socialist-democratic system for India despite it having failed miserably in the past.
India has almost all the basic inputs required to create wealth and eradicate poverty. But it will not become wealthy till its electorate is guided by a reformed media to punish those who institute policies that destroy wealth and reward those who institute policies that create wealth. It requires the existence of a aware media that understands and supports tough economic measures such as elimination of subsidies and elimination of public sector, dismantling of socialist labor protection laws and freeing capital for the much more efficient private sector as its priority. That unfortunately is not likely to happen in the near future.
Guess its easy to miss-read stuff here.
I am commenting on posts from “Ramnath” & “Bob”.
Bob’s point is “checks & balances are vital for any democracy to succeed.”
Ramnathan’s point “Capitalism helps elevate poverty not democracy”. Taking USA as example, Democracy checks/balances capitalism. Taking China example, Communism checks/balances capitalism.
End of day, i have to agree that capitalism would help significantly to elevate poverty. But democracy is an added bonus where people get to choose (hopefully) which of the capitalistic ideas (via checks/balances from the govt) are suitable for them at any moment in time.
Hi myself a malayalee
yep most of us do not know the correct english pronounciation (i am even forgetting my spellings)
so indias 55% of gulf money flows to kerala
our tribal ppl go on strike and demonstrate in front of the secretriate
u get gulf made reebok shoes in pathanamthitta than in kochi
the largest selling daily is malayala manorama
we elected the communists this time instead of the congress but guess what both r in power but sadly for us communists refuse to be part of the governments parlimentary activities (that means no ministers)
every 5 years we change our government communists and congress (so predictable)
we r the asian rally champions (well MRF is)
wherever u go u r never a stones throw away from a malayalee
Sauvik,
What you know about keralites. I can understand from your comment that you don’t know anything about kerala.It was a long time ago keralites ware nurses or typists. At the same time all Indians except keralites were cowards.
At the present time the most challenging jobs are on the keralites hands eg. ISRO, Defence Reaserch.
No one will accept your comment about keralites.
Hi,
Iam from tamilnadu,
thanjavour. Mallus are talented people.
Mallus can carry any responsiblity at any time.
Being a tamilian, i really wondered news coverage by kerala media, and people’s involvement in every issue.
Whether it is HMT land issue or Nilma milk issue, they will
talk about it hour and hour(Sometimes i loughed). They have the power to imidate their CM and Ministers if they fail. Can we do this in TN? You will be burned alive.
Tamilnadu is better than Kerala, but Malayalis are better than tamilians.
In Cinema Industry do you know that Greatest Comedian of Indian Film history just wasting his life in malabar.
that great versatile actor name is jagathee sreekumar.he is thousand times better than vadivelu, kanja karuppu, santhanam or paresh rawaal and jhony walker.
Tamil people can understand malayalam easily.so please watch malayalam channels, you can not find anyone in india equal to Jagathee Sreekumar,i challenge you.
Singers like Jesudass,unni menon, unni krishnan, Chitra, Sujatha, Gaythri are from kerala.
I love cheran makkal (mallus).
sauvik chakraverti,
I thought bongs were well informed.But you have proved me wrong.I think you may have to do a thorough research about kerala and its people before making conclusive statements. If you travel around the country,(no need to mention outside it) you will learn that very prominent positions are owned by malayalees.That’s right bongs come only second. Menons, Nairs, Johns, jacobs, vargheses, varmas and iyers(palakkad tamil-mallus) are more significant than the mukherjees and Banerjees and guptas.Go to the poshest areas of chennai.Chetpet harrington road or annanagar and you’ll see these names. Go to bangalore and you’ll wonder if it actually is a part of kerala. Besides food chains such as imperial, empire and the likes There is even a mall named Gopalan mall.Talk to a christ college student and you’ll be surprised to know the mallu student rate.Hyderabad has mallus in every nook and crany.. i can name about thirty people in my friends list. And come to amchi mumbai where i am currently.. every business stream has a considerable lot, mostly at the top level. All the bosses in the three companies i worked where mallus and its no co-incidence. but mind you.they mostly live incognito.Delhi .. you name them i’ll tell you who isnt mallu cos that would be easier.