Constrained Expertise in India and China

This book explores the politics of expertise in policymaking in India and China. It asks what kinds of knowledge and knowledge purveyors get mobilized and privileged in decision-making, and who gets sidelined. Through its detailed empirical studies, the volume illuminates a trend of increasing centralization of political authority in both countries which has frequently demanded that experts be aligned with the central government's agenda. Spaces are shrinking for divergent and oppositional viewpoints, whether these come from the bureaucracy, academia, think tanks, or NGOs. The declining autonomy of experts has been aided by institutional structures, since experts that directly contribute to policymaking have been typically embedded within bureaucracies or dependent on the state rather than occupying independent bases. Both countries face the challenge of how to build and sustain ecosystems of heterogeneous experts that are not simply echo chambers of the state.