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ABSTRACT
South Asia has seen the almost simultaneous introduction of contribution-free social schemes in employment, health, education and pensions which are often strengthened by constitutional amendments and the right to information about government acts and procedures for normal citizens. Given the diverging economic, political and social composition of the countries of the region the near simultaneous introduction of the rights-based cash transfer programmes might be attributed to regional policy diffusion, caused either by some common pressures, learning from neighbours, or emulation. Using the case of employment guarantee programmes we contribute to the diffusion literature by showing that the schemes were not copied fully, but adapted to the national social, political and financial circumstances of the countries, built on the respective programme predecessors or not copied at all. Governments in the region were able to choose not only the timing of introduction but also the scope, coverage and generosity as well as their regulatory framework for programme execution and monitoring. We argue that programme adoption is more likely if the programmes in question are compatible with the ideological leanings of the government, fit with the international social practice and compatible with already existing schemes. However, some similarities between the employment programmes in South Asia could be the result of the influence of external development actors with the result that former rather different programmes become alike.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. On diffusion and the causal mechanisms of its occurrence, the empirical evidence is meanwhile quite large; a number of studies have been published on privatization, liberalization and deregulation (Leisering Citation2004, Simmons and Elkins Citation2004, Simmons et al. Citation2006), pension reforms in Latin America (Brooks Citation2005, Levy and Schady Citation2013, Orenstein Citation2013), conditional cash transfers (also with a focus on Latin America; Hall Citation2008, Sugiyama Citation2011, Marzo and Mori Citation2012, Levy and Schady Citation2013) and on social cash transfers (Leisering Citation2009).
2. The predecessor of the MGNREGA in India was introduced in the state of Maharashtra (Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme – MEGS) as a response to a severe drought in the 1970s and is generally seen as a great success (Pellissery Citation2006, Subbarao et al. Citation2013).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Joachim Betz
Joachim Betz is Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Political Science (University of Hamburg) and former Principal Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute of Asian Studies, Hamburg. His main research interests are social and economic developments in South Asia, political institutions in India, development finance and theory, climate and energy policies of emerging powers. Joachim Betz holds a PhD degree in Political Science, was speaker of the Section Development theory of the German Association of Political Science and member of the Advisory Council of the Senate of the City of Hamburg for development.
Daniel Neff
Daniel Neff is Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute of Asian Studies. He holds a Master in Development Studies and a PhD in Social Statistics from the University of Manchester. His research broadly focuses on socio-economic developments in South Asia.