Articles by John Harriss

The "Slater" villages of Tamil Nadu that were first surveyed by the University of Madras economist, Gilbert Slater, and his students in 1916, were resurveyed in the 1930s, 1960s and the 1980s. This paper reports and discusses a 2008 resurvey of Iruvelpattu, one of the five Slater villages in Tamil Nadu. The 2008 study tells the story of persistence of landlord power, continuing dependence of a majority of households on agriculture in spite of the significant diversification of employment that has taken place, and an apparent stagnation in the agricultural economy after the relative success of the green revolution in the 1970s. It also brings out a tightening in the labour market and dalit political mobilisation as well as a shift in agricultural wage rates. However, the level of state intervention in the interests of social security through primary healthcare provision, schools in which teachers are actually present, and the maintenance of a universal public distribution system as well as the operation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, all distinguish Iruvelpattu generally from villages in other parts of the country.

In recent times, social scientists have noted the decline of state responsiveness to social claims. There appears an equal decline in the ability of existing structures of representation to provide poorer social groups influence over policy. On the other hand, there is also evidence of a crisis in popular representation in several low- and middle-income countries. Poorer social groups appear to have a limited capacity to present a reform agenda that addresses issues of basic rights and ensures livelihoods. To test this hypothesis, this paper studies sample communities in Delhi, representative of a broad cross section of the population. Through an analysis of the data collected, the study describes and explains patterns of political participation, focusing in particular on ways in which poorer social groups organise, obtain political representation and try to solve collective social problems. It appears, contrary to most expectations, that the needs and interest of poorer people are increasingly being met through the 'new politics' of social movements, the poor in particular still seek to represent themselves and to tackle their problems through political parties.

Globalisation is an extremely powerful ideology being projected as having no alternative. There is resistance, even if not coherent as yet. The practical basis for an alternative is to be seen in the progress being made in different parts of the world, often by left parties, to make a reality of deliberative democracy, as in the experiments with people's planning in Kerala or with participative budgeting in Porto Alegre in Brazil.



Based on field research in Coimbatore in 1980, this paper discusses several theories concerning the character and role of 'small-'Scale' production in relation to the industrial economy as a whole, A distinction is made between small capitalist units of production and 'petty commodity producer units. The patterns of ownership and financing of both types of units are considered, and the character of the linkages between different forms of production is examined in some detail The extent of subcontracting between big capital industries and small units is shown to be considerable, and the interests of big industry in the splitting up of production processes in order to tighten the control of labour are demonstrated.