| State-led development has failed to make any considerable dent on poverty in India and in many other developing countries, and more than 20 percent of the world's population, fully 1.2 billion persons, continue to subsist on incomes of under a dollar a day. With the state beating a retreat over large parts of the developing world, and with markets only beginning to penetrate many rural areas, and then not necessarily meeting the needs of the poor, it is important to understand the potentials for collective action and self-help that inhere within rural communities.; What attributes, propensities and organizational capacities enable rural communities to engage in collective action and obtain widespread benefits in the economic, social and political realms? Does social capital help explain the differences that exist among village communities in terms of performance supporting economic development, community peace, and democratic participation, the three dependent variables of this analysis? Or are these differences better accounted for by certain other village-level characteristics---such as social stratification, caste and tribe, political party strength, modern infrastructure, or literacy---that are proposed as determining factors in different parts of the social science literature?; These and other competing explanations are examined here by drawing on a database compiled for 69 North Indian villages in the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, including individual interviews with more than 2,500 village residents. Differences in the extent of economic development, communal harmony, and democratic participation cannot be understood, the analysis shows, by depending on any of the usual community-level features. Neither social stratification, nor party strength, nor modernization levels are significant for explaining variations in any of the three dependent variables.; Social capital---measured with the help of a locally-relevant scale devised for this purpose---turns out, on the other hand, to be a village characteristic that is significantly associated with economic development as well as communal peace and democratic participation. Agency is required, however, for drawing upon the stock of social capital and for deriving a flow of benefits. Different agency types help to mobilize social capital with respect to different societal objectives.; In most village communities, a new set of informal and entrepreneurial village leaders have arisen, mostly within the last two decades, who assist with mobilizing social capital for economic development and also democratic participation. Operating independently of caste and party networks, and assisted by the rise of education and mass communication, these agents provide a bridge between the village, on the one hand, and state and market structures, on the other. Another agency type, the traditional and informal Village Councils, helps to draw upon social capital for the purpose of maintaining community peace.; The emergence of alternative leadership at the grassroots is having far-reaching effects. The new set of younger, more educated, and non-caste-based political entrepreneurs are democratizing politics at the village level, and they are helping make established socio-economic and political structures more accountable to the ordinary villager. |
