Deliberative Inequality : A Text-As-Data Study of Tamil Nadu's Village Assemblies
The resurgence of deliberative institutions in the developing world has prompted a renewed interest in the dynamics of citizen engagement. Using text-as-data methods on an original corpus of village assembly transcripts from rural Tamil Nadu, India...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/582551498568606865/Deliberative-inequality-a-text-as-data-study-of-Tamil-Nadus-village-assemblies http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27621 |
| Summary: | The resurgence of deliberative
institutions in the developing world has prompted a renewed
interest in the dynamics of citizen engagement. Using
text-as-data methods on an original corpus of village
assembly transcripts from rural Tamil Nadu, India, this
paper opens the "black box" of deliberation to
examine the gendered and status-based patterns of influence.
Drawing on normative theories of deliberation, this analysis
identifies a set of clear empirical standards for “good”
deliberation, based on an individual's ability both to
speak and be heard, and uses natural language processing
methods to generate these measures. The study first shows
that these assemblies are not mere "talking shop"
for state officials to bluster and read banal announcements,
but rather, provide opportunities for citizens to challenge
their elected officials, demand transparency, and provide
information about authentic local development needs. Second,
the study finds that across multiple measures of
deliberative influence, women are at a disadvantage relative
to men; women are less likely to speak, set the agenda, and
receive a relevant response from state officials. Finally,
the paper shows that although quotas for women on village
councils have little impact on the likelihood that they
speak, they do improve the likelihood that female citizens
are heard. |
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