Constrained Expertise in India and China: Knowledge and Power in Policymaking

Constrained Expertise in India and China explores what kinds of knowledge and knowledge purveyors get mobilized and privileged, and what gets sidelined in policymaking in India and China. Through its detailed empirical studies in both countries, the volume illuminates a trend of increasing concentration of political authority 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 exacerbated by institutional structures, since knowledge purveyors that directly contribute to policymaking typically have been embedded within bureaucracies or otherwise 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 executive authority.