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Pluralism adds depth to the mixing of methods in development studies. Global society has both structure and complexity, and agents within society actively promote competing ways of describing and interpreting that society. Theoretical pluralism offers a way for social scientists to describe and judge the competing theories about a given social situation. (Methodological pluralism is also discussed in this paper.) An example – tenancy in India – is explored to illustrate how pluralists compare theories. The tenancy literature includes neoclassical, institutionalist, and Marxist theories. These cut across three academic disciplines. Pluralist research is often interdisciplinary in such ways. Such interdisciplinary research generates a dialogue across epistemological chasms and across theories that have different underlying assumptions. Pluralist research can be valued for its discursive bridging function. Pluralist research can also contribute to improvements in scientific measurement. Divergent schools of thought can be brought into contact by reconceptualising the objects of research, such as contracts or coercion. In the tenancy literature, alternative ways of measuring and interpreting power arose. Structuralist approaches tended to assume poverty and inequality as part of the context within which economic action takes place. Strengths and weaknesses of such assumptions are examined. The approach recommended here, which is realist, makes possible an improved dialogue about policy changes aimed at poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corruption is analysed by addressing the interrelations between the moral and political economy regulating state-based welfare provision in Jharkhand, India. On the one hand, the article focuses on the rural elite to show that 'corrupt' practices are not just guided by financial utility but also by non-material interests, underpinned by a multivarious moral economy. On the other hand, the article shows that the poorest in the rural areas (adivasis or Scheduled Tribes) keep away from the state, seeing it as beyond the moral pale, and instead resurrect an alternative sovereign structure. The adivasi perspectives are influenced by a political economy of historical experiences of the state and interrelations with the elites. The paper concludes that a particular political economy is intimately connected with a moral economy, and that transformations in political economy affect the moral economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the relationship between corruption and gender in the context of local government in India, using a Logit model. Recent debates about women's participation in electoral politics suggests that the presence of more women in government will engender public policy, and also tends to reduce corruption. The evidence we examined indicates that gender is not a significant factor in explaining levels of corruption. Although nearly 40 per cent of the elective positions in the institutions of local government are occupied by women, there is no significant gender difference in attitudes towards rent-seeking or in actual levels of corruption between male and female representatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognition of the importance of institutions that provide security of property rights and relatively equal access to economic resources to a broad cross-section of society has renewed interest in the potential of asset redistribution, including land reforms. Empirical analysis of the impact of such policies is, however, scant and often contradictory. We use panel household data from India, together with state-level variation in the land reform implementation, to address some of the deficiencies of earlier studies. Results suggest that land reform had a significant and positive impact on income growth and accumulation of human and physical capital. Policy implications are drawn, especially from the fact that the observed impact of land reform seems to have declined over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the impact of agricultural liberalisation on different farming classes in the region of Telangana in South India. The region has been witnessing significant growth in real agricultural output over the last 15 years. At the same time, as NSS (National Sample Survey) household survey data indicate, there have been significant welfare declines not only for marginal farmers and landless labour, but for other groups as well. There have also been more than a thousand farmer suicides between 1998 and 2002. I argue in this article that during the liberalisation period, that is, post 1990, agricultural growth and increased distress have become mutually intertwined. I use the terms, growth-inducing distress and distress-inducing growth to explain this apparent paradox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an exploratory analysis of fertility differentials in India. Economic analysis of fertility; Considerations of factors affecting fertility; Degree to which economic circumstances and culturally linked factors can explain the regional differences in fertility rates.

It is argued here that in transitional economies industrial growth depends not so much on the size of the agricultural surplus but rather on the rates of productivity growth and population growth in agriculture via their effects on the size of the home market for manufactures. In developing this argument estimates of the agricultural surplus and inter-sectoral market shares in post-restoration Japan and post-independence India are compared. A typology of agrarian systems is then suggested based on how alternative systems influence productivity and population trends in agriculture. The typology is illustrated with historical comparisons from Europe, Japan and India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]