Can Good Economics Ever Be Good Politics? Case Study of India's Power Sector

Lal, Sumir

Washington, DC:World Bank

关键词: ACCESS TO ELECTRICITY;    ACCOUNTABILITY;    ACCOUNTING;    AIRPORTS;    APPROACH;   

DOI  :  10.1596/978-0-8213-6680-6
RP-ID  :  36586

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

In recent years, the power sector inseveral developing countries has suffered from a frustratinggap between strong, pro-reform rhetoric at the politicallevel, and weak, hesitant implementation of the reformmeasures on the ground. Focusing on the recent experience ofpower sector reform in India, this paper looks afresh at theproblem of therhetoric-implementation gapby taking thelack of political will as its starting point, andidentifying the ingredients that comprise it in the currentcontext of India. Assuming that people and institutions arenot impartial but instead respond to political and economicincentives, it explains how the lack of political will oftenreflects rational political behavior. Using this morerealistic framework, it examines the incentives, informalrelationships, and interests that govern the behavior ofpeople and institutions, and searches for the openings andopportunities that reformers must pursue.