Akhil Gupta. Red Tape. Bureaucracy, Structural Violence and Poverty in India
Abstract
The book attempts to answer a central question for India, but also for all political science: in this country where the alternation of governments strictly obeys the verdict of universal franchise, where the poor voters participate much more in the elections than the rich and educated, where low castes and “tribes” benefit from positive discrimination, how can one explain that democracy can function with such a mass of miserable and malnourished population? The answer is above all the importance of corruption, and the “structural violence” of the everyday state.