Hype, Skill and Class: The Politics of Reform in Andhra Pradesh, India

Andhra Pradesh is a relatively underdeveloped state in south India that has become one of the leaders of the Indian reform process. How was this possible? With the help of 12 hypotheses, the paper discusses the politics of the reforms in Andhra Pradesh. The focus is particularly on the period between 1995 and 2004, during which an explicitly reform-oriented government ruled the state. The paper suggests that an important factor behind the reforms seems to lie in the changing economic needs and aspirations of the initially rural-based classes/groups on which the reforming regime was based. Moreover, in contrast to some other Indian states, reforms in Andhra Pradesh were not introduced by stealth, but by hype, by a skilful and cleverly managing leadership that succeeded in suggesting a break with the past while it continued with pro-poor spending and continued to allow policy implementation to be (mis)used for local-level party building.