ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the wider context and backdrop to the narrative developed in the rest of the book. It provides the reader with a brief overview of the global economic transformations that took place during the 1970s and 80s, and the complex economic-institutional and development challenges posed by such economic adjustment processes. It then proceeds to provide a critical review of the core theme of the book: the politics of economic transition, and discusses some of the key associated literature. Having established the centrality of reform politics in any study of economic adjustment, the chapter then sharpens the focus on to the phenomenon of economic liberalisation in India. Following a brief historical overview, it introduces the reader to some of the key concepts of the politics of economic reforms in India: liberalisation by stealth, inter-jurisdictional competition and provincial Darwinism, and concludes by highlighting the state of West Bengal as a special and rather unique case within the wider political economic churnings of neoliberal India.
