Institutional Dynamics of Governance Reform in India (1991–2016)

Abstract

Loss of governance reform efficacy is an identified entrenched institutional problem in systems. Reform, anywhere, is a sticky material because holders of powers and their cronies have rarely shown altruistic intentions of relaxing their profiteering grips over resources. Instead, they have done their best to retain, defend and preach status quo; howsoever ossified or inhuman in form. Under these circumstances, governance reforms surface under fiscal compulsions, public order implications and/or interventions from the judiciary. This article takes up the case of India, a country where power holding, too, has been a compulsive exercise of mediation on such matters. To examine efficacy, it goes into the institutional dynamics of textual politics in course correction and process implementation. The case is built up on the strength of evidence from economic reforms, administrative reforms, police reforms, devolution strategies and corporate governance reforms during the past 25 years. The article highlights discourse ethics and concludes with a heuristic intent.