Governance response during COVID‐19 and political affirmative action: Evidence from local governments in India. (15th January 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pandey, Vivek; Rathi, Ankita; Kumar, Deepak
• Other Names: Smoke Paul guestEditor.; Tosun Mehmet Serkan guestEditor.; Yilmaz Serdar guestEditor.
• Is Part Of: Public administration and development. Volume 43:Number 2(2023)
• Page Start: 185
• Page End: 195
• Publication Date: 2023-01-15
• Subjects: COVID response -- female agency -- India -- local governments -- political reservation; Developing countries -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; Public administration -- Developing countries -- Periodicals; Développement communautaire -- Pays en voie de développement -- Périodiques; Pays en voie de développement -- Administration -- Périodiques; Pays en voie de développement -- Conditions économiques -- Périodiques; Pays en voie de développement -- Conditions sociales -- Périodiques; 350
• DOI: 10.1002/pad.2006
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0271-2075

Abstract

Abstract: A great deal of work argues that the entry of women into public spaces can promote political and institutional change. The COVID‐19 provides an opportunity to investigate whether and under what conditions women's political representation in rural local governments deliver effective local governance? Drawing from two rounds of data collected in 174 local governments and 1051 households in three Indian states, the paper shows that women Pradhans in the Gram Panchayats had no differential impact on the governance response to COVID‐19 compared to the unreserved ones. Analyzing the heterogeneity in these responses suggests that institutional factors like the proportion of women in village council and local entrepreneurship diversity can enhance women Pradhan's capacity to respond to the pandemic. We explore two channels that enable women Pradhan to govern effectively during the pandemic: improving women's participation in the labor force and reducing household's vulnerability to poverty in the pre‐COVID period.