Deliberative Inequality : A Text-As-Data Study of Tamil Nadu's Village Assemblies

Parthasarathy, Ramya ; Rao, Vijayendra ; Palaniswamy, Nethra

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: GENDER;    VILLAGE DEMOCRACY;    PARTICIPATION;    DELIBERATION;    INEQUALITY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8119
RP-ID  :  WPS8119

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The resurgence of deliberativeinstitutions in the developing world has prompted a renewedinterest in the dynamics of citizen engagement. Usingtext-as-data methods on an original corpus of villageassembly transcripts from rural Tamil Nadu, India, thispaper opens the "black box" of deliberation toexamine the gendered and status-based patterns of influence.Drawing on normative theories of deliberation, this analysisidentifies a set of clear empirical standards for “good”deliberation, based on an individual's ability both tospeak and be heard, and uses natural language processingmethods to generate these measures. The study first showsthat these assemblies are not mere "talking shop"for state officials to bluster and read banal announcements,but rather, provide opportunities for citizens to challengetheir elected officials, demand transparency, and provideinformation about authentic local development needs. Second,the study finds that across multiple measures ofdeliberative influence, women are at a disadvantage relativeto men; women are less likely to speak, set the agenda, andreceive a relevant response from state officials. Finally,the paper shows that although quotas for women on villagecouncils have little impact on the likelihood that theyspeak, they do improve the likelihood that female citizensare heard.