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Globalization, as commonly understood, limits policy choices of a nation by creating structural and institutional constraints. This leads to an important question: are political actors still relevant in shaping policy in the interest of domestic socio-economic concerns? Locating labour as a critical political economy factor, essential for production and capable of political action, this text examines the political economy of labour reforms.

Kanta Murali. 2017. Caste, Class and Capital: The Social and Political Origins of Economic Policy in India. Cambridge University Press, 317pp., Paperback, £24.99. ISBN: 978-1316608173.

This article presents the findings of perceptions of electoral integrity survey for subnational elections in India between 2015 and 2017. The perceptions of electoral integrity survey is an attempt to provide a comprehensive, impartial and independent source of information derived from experts about elections conforming to internationally recognized principles and standards. The article then evaluates the factors that account for differences in the perceptions of electoral integrity in India. We show that higher-income states in India tend to have higher levels of electoral integrity. However, we argue that differences in the quality of governance best explain subnational variation in the perceptions of electoral integrity in India.

Between 8th November and 31st December 2016 the Indian government instituted one of the biggest demonetisation exercises in the world by withdrawing 86 percent of all currency in the form of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes. This paper looks at the debate surrounding the demonetisation exercise and attempts to provide a political economy logic. Interrogating the various arguments around demonetisation, it argues that demonetisation has been reduced to a political posturing as the economic consequences remain highly debated. ; Entre 8 de novembro e 31 de dezembro de 2016, o governo indiano instituiu um dos maiores exercícios de desmonetização do mundo, retirando 86% de todas as moedas, sob a forma das notas deRs 500 e Rs 1000. Este artigo analisa o debate em torno do exercício de desmonetização e tenta fornecer uma narrativa política do evento. Interrogando os vários argumentos em torno da desmonetização, argumenta que a desmonetização foi reduzida a uma postura política, uma vez que as consequências econômicas continuam a ser altamente debatidas.

This article provides a historical perspective on a rather unique chapter in the era of economic reforms in India—the case of the state of West Bengal. In 1991, the Government of India began to pursue a policy of economic liberalization, causing serious political challenges for the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM)-led Left Front coalition in West Bengal. Historically, the CPIM had strongly opposed economic reforms, but was compelled to undertake a policy 'transition' owing to the stagnating economy of the state. The transition, and the motivations behind it, was a topic debated often—especially once the party started courting private investment, pushed for large-scale industrialization, and eventually suffered a historic defeat in 2011 after 33 years in power—but rarely has a coherent historical narrative of what caused the transition been brought to the forefront. This article attempts to address that gap by examining the following question: what were the local political conditions that compelled the CPIM/Left Front take upon itself the task of engineering such a transition? While acknowledging the larger forces of globalization and Indian federalism, the analysis focuses on the rarely discussed local socio-economic priorities in West Bengal, and constructs a dual narrative of instrumental and political–ideological arguments.

This article provides a historical perspective on a rather unique chapter in the era of economic reforms in India—the case of the state of West Bengal. In 1991, the Government of India began to pursue a policy of economic liberalization, causing serious political challenges for the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM)-led Left Front coalition in West Bengal. Historically, the CPIM had strongly opposed economic reforms, but was compelled to undertake a policy 'transition' owing to the stagnating economy of the state. The transition, and the motivations behind it, was a topic debated often—especially once the party started courting private investment, pushed for large-scale industrialization, and eventually suffered a historic defeat in 2011 after 33 years in power—but rarely has a coherent historical narrative of what caused the transition been brought to the forefront. This article attempts to address that gap by examining the following question: what were the local political conditions that compelled the CPIM/Left Front take upon itself the task of engineering such a transition? While acknowledging the larger forces of globalization and Indian federalism, the analysis focuses on the rarely discussed local socio-economic priorities in West Bengal, and constructs a dual narrative of instrumental and political–ideological arguments.

In contemporary literature, bargaining is often construed as an instrument in the hands of the employer, a practice that is sustained by undermining worker solidarity and promoting interests of privileged unionized workers at the expense of other workers. This article challenges such narratives by foregrounding the idea of solidarity and highlighting the complex interplay of solidarity emanating from the multiple ways consciousness about worker identity plays out. Drawing on the literature on new social movements (NSM) and industrial relations (IR), the article shows that the relevance of bargaining is not merely confined to instrumental economic goals but extends to politically constitutive action. In the process of bargaining the political agency of workers and distinctive articulations of solidarity are identified. This article presents and classifies three kinds of solidarity that correspond to the three dimensions of political consciousness, namely critical solidarity, limited solidarity and absent solidarity across cases that are shaped by contextual realities of labour politics.

Since the enactment of economic liberalization in India in the early 1990s, variation in investment climate and labor market reforms across sub-national states has been linked to the increasing relevance of business in policy making. This article argues that the influence of business on policy is conditioned by wider political dynamics. We argue that the reform orientation of states correspond to the position of business classes and caste-based groups within the support base of political parties. We show that caste identification plays an important role on the position of political parties towards business liberalization policies. Thus, we conclude that the relative power of business across the states appears to vary due to the relation between business and government, which in turn is structured by the salience of business castes as an electorally relevant group.

The fight against the Covid-19 pandemic has shifted from finding a cure to acquiring vaccines and organizing vaccination. The race for vaccination has exacerbated tendencies of hoarding, particularly among rich countries, academically expressed as vaccine nationalism. Vaccine nationalism is harmful to the global effort in the fight against the pandemic. India in contrast has been quite generous to its neighbours in sharing vaccines pursuing its own form of vaccine nationalism. The strategy pursued by India can be read as an effort to gloss over the failures in initial pandemic management, to improve diplomatic leverage and reinforce an idiom of nationalism. Such an effort however has potentially harmful effects undermining trust in the vaccine as well as in the government. The politicization of vaccine also has counterproductive outcomes for democratic practices within the country.

Limits of Bargaining is an original addition to the political economy analysis of capital-labour relations in the organised industrial sector in the context of economic liberalisation in India. It analyses the dynamics of the capital-labour bargaining process in the context of the changing nature of the state and market as a result of adoption of policies of liberalisation and globalisation for the last two and half decades. It examines the nature of collective bargaining and analyses the underlying structural-political conditions that shape the capital-labour relations. Based on original empirical material from West Bengal, a state long considered pro-labour, the book presents bargaining between capital and labour as endogenous to the interplay of the triad of the market, technology and the institutions of the state. It illustrates everyday interactions between labour and management, different unions and outside actors that shape collective bargaining, and highlights the negotiation, appropriations and compromises that shape bargaining at the operational level.