Online zoom event
What makes some governments more responsive to citizens than others? This question of government responsiveness, a key question in political economy, gains special significance in the context of heterogeneous performance of various state governments in the face of a life-threatening pandemic like Covid 19. Usually diversity and representation in governments have been advocated as key explanations for government responsiveness. However, these explanations tend to focus on elected governments, and virtually ignore the significance of bureaucratic representation. This paper examines the role of bureaucratic representation as a key factor in the successful coronavirus strategy. It uses the Indian state of Kerala, which has been widely applauded as a ‘model’ for effective government intervention in mitigating this public health crisis, to illustrate this argument. This paper also speaks to the debate of embedded v autonomous bureaucracy in public policy making in developing countries, and highlights some of the policy lessons learned from the Kerala model.
Food for Thought is a speaker series that welcomes a distinguished lineup of EMPA Faculty approaching the Covid-19 crisis and social justice reform. Each week a speaker will present their recommendation paper, highlight their perspective on the crisis, and engage in a dialogue with EMPA students, alumni, and other faculty members.
We are in a pivotal moment - full of opportunities for policymakers to transform lessons from the crisis into concrete benefits for their communities. While we cannot come together physically to exchange ideas, we believe we can leverage the virtual tools at our disposal to activate stakeholders and build out practical and innovative solutions to the crisis at hand.
Zoom link will be emailed upon registration.
