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Governance by Patching: A Comparative Analysis of Adaptive Policy Implementation

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Abstract

Through a comparative case study, we develop the theory of top-down, iterative and fine-grained state planning and implementation called governance by patching. By patching, state institutions can repeatedly change plans based on local information during implementation. We analyze two surprising examples of this understudied mechanism in a prototypical highly centralized state that would be least likely to display this dynamism. First, the Indian Supreme Court engaged in responsive implementation to convert passenger-carrying vehicles in Delhi to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), a clean fuel. Second, the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh successfully implemented a rural right-to-work program, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), using digital technology. They show how patching occurs over different time scales, within a hierarchical organization, as well as between organizations, and in both rural and urban settings. Governance by patching illustrates dynamism within centralized state institutions without requiring institutional changes.

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Notes

  1. We thank the publishers of Oxford University Press for permitting us to reproduce some sections which have appeared in the book Patching Development:Information Politics and Social Change in India. The Andhra case study is developed in greater detail in that book. This article deepens the empirical discussion by adding another case (Delhi), which was not discussed in the book.

  2. We extend ideas published in the book Patching Development Veeraraghavan (2021) comparatively.

  3. First, contractors typically do not use local labor to complete the work, which would be one of the important purposes of NREGA to provide alternate incomes to local workers; Second, contractors were one key actor through which development funds were siphoned off.

  4. M.C. Mehta vs. Union of India, Writ Petition (Civil) No. 13029 of 1985.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 20057, USA

    Rajesh Veeraraghavan

  2. Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA

    Atul Pokharel

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  1. Rajesh Veeraraghavan
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  2. Atul Pokharel
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Correspondence to Rajesh Veeraraghavan.

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Veeraraghavan, R., Pokharel, A. Governance by Patching: A Comparative Analysis of Adaptive Policy Implementation. St Comp Int Dev (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-024-09425-3

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