Thirsty Cities
Social Contracts and Public Goods Provision in China and India

Provides the answer to the enduring puzzle why India lags behind China in offering public goods to its people.

Selina Ho (Author)

9781108825078, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 August 2020

311 pages, 8 b/w illus. 14 tables
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.5 cm, 0.46 kg

'This book wrestles intelligently with the puzzle of why an authoritarian regime, China, is more proficient at providing essential public goods than a robust democracy, India. This counter-intuitive outcome is the subject of this important work by Selina Ho. She highlights the crucial role of informal institutions and normative principles in explaining service provision as determinant rather than regime type or other factors. The work is essential reading for anyone interested in the relationship between the politics of welfare, regime type and public goods provision.' Tony Saich, Daewoo Professor of International Affairs, Director, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School

Why does authoritarian China provide a higher level of public goods than democratic India? Studies based on regime type have shown that the level of public goods provision is higher in democratic systems than in authoritarian forms of government. However, public goods provision in China and India contradicts these findings. Whether in terms of access to education, healthcare, public transportation, and basic necessities, such as drinking water and electricity, China does consistently better than India. This book argues that regime type does not determine public goods outcomes. Using empirical evidence from the Chinese and Indian municipal water sectors, the study explains and demonstrates how a social contract, an informal institution, influences formal institutional design, which in turn accounts for the variations in public goods provision.

1. Public goods provision in China and India
Part I. Social Contracts: 2. Social contracts, institutional design, and public goods provision
3. The Chinese social contract
4. The Indian social contract
Part II. Comparing Urban Water Management in China and India: 5. Comparing China's and India's water institutional frameworks
6. Quenching thirst in China's first-tier cities: Shenzhen and Beijing
7. Water constraints in India's megacities: New Delhi and Hyderabad
8. Conclusion: types of social contracts and can social contracts change?

Subject Areas: Law [L], Political economy [KCP], Comparative politics [JPB], Asian history [HBJF]