ABSTRACT

This chapter seeks to explain why India’s otherwise vibrant and diversified civil society has, for the most part, been so unsuccessful at combating forms of corruption that disproportionately afflict the poor. Contemporary thinking on governance assumes civil society’s comparative advantage in representing the poor, concluding that associations representing the interests of non-elite groups can act as ‘watchdogs’ on the state, compensating for failures by formal accountability institutions at curbing corruption. Indeed, some analysts have suggested that the state can ‘foster’ the emergence of civil society associations capable of articulating the views of the poor-for instance, through decentralisation, programmes that extend legally enforceable rights to the poor and the creation of forums for policy dialogue.