Achieving global competitiveness and local poverty reduction? Examining the public-private partnering model of governance in Bangalore, India

This dissertation explores how changing global economic and political forces have driven the constitution of new public-private institutional arrangements for governance locally and their implications for urban development in general, and local democracy in particular. The literature on public-private partnerships (PPPs) is characterized by polarization between instrumentalist views on PPPs and a more inclusive social betterment perspective, a tendency to study PPPs as growth coalitions isolated from larger structural forces, and the elision of the role of the subnational/local state. Relying on a case study of a PPP involved in more than 50 infrastructure, beautification and planning projects in Bangalore, India, I argue for understanding PPPs as "local neoliberalisms" constructed by local state and corporate actors in response to larger neoliberal forces. Local neoliberalisms are shaped by the institutional form and strategy of particular PPPs as well as local responses to them. Further, I argue that PPPs introduce a new partnering approach to governance that involves coalition-style politics, networking, and collective visioning that clearly benefits some groups over others.; I used two main methods to test these hypotheses: trend analysis to understand the new settings within which policymaking and planning is taking place in cities, and a discourse analysis tracing the rise and fall of the case study PPP through interviews, narratives, documentation, and media representations.; I find that through its projects and discourse of middle class modernization the PPP focused on achieving global competitiveness that benefited the middle classes at the expense of poor groups. This garnered counter discourses from affected groups, a conflict-ridden process that resulted in the PPP's demise. This suggests that if PPPs utilizing market principles are to benefit marginalized populations besides the already rich and the 'new rich', there is need for greater deliberation on the role and redistributive function of PPPs, a shift from technocracy to engagement with the political environment, and planning for "illegal" people living in "informal" areas of the city. My findings highlight a crucial role for subnational states in mediating between and selecting certain interests over others and the imperative for 'modernization' that includes poor groups.