xx SUMMARY


Reform of the Policies Governing Electricity Supply to Agriculture The analysis of the political processes underlying electricity policies in Andhra Pradesh and Punjab also indicates that both interest-group politics and political ideas affect political outcomes. The research largely confirms major findings of earlier studies that used an interest-group approach: Reforms have been hindered by politically powerful interest groups, by the nature of electoral competition at the state level, and by developments that created path dependence, especially the abolition of metered agricultural- electricity connections in the 1980s.


As with fertilizer policy, the clash between the market-oriented and the welfare-state-oriented paradigm is significant. The political appeal of using electricity pricing as an instrument for income redistribution lies in its relative simplicity: unlike other policy instruments, such as conditional cash transfers, providing free electricity to farmers does not require any imple- mentation by the bureaucratic apparatus, with all the associated problems of delays and leakage. In the market-oriented paradigm, the goal of intersec- toral income redistribution is questionable. In this paradigm, only safety nets for the “really poor” are acceptable. The study finds that both paradigms are represented across almost all the stakeholder groups, including organizations representing the agricultural sector, the energy sector, the research commu- nity, and the political parties. Related to this clash of paradigms is the fact that stakeholders, and even researchers, have rather different, and often opposing, views about essential facts, causal mechanisms, and appropriate policy solutions regarding electricity supply to agriculture. Coalitions of politi- cal actors that jointly promote certain reform options have, so far, been formed among groups that basically share the same paradigm, but not across paradigms.


Comparing the Politics of Fertilizer and Electricity Reform The two policy fields are characterized by a range of structural differences. Fertilizer policy is a national-level policy, whereas electricity supply to agri- culture is managed at the state level. The structure of the industries supply- ing the respective inputs is different, as are the types of market failures that arise in the two areas. Both policy areas have environmental implications, but the concerns regarding the nutrient imbalance caused by subsidizing nitrogenous fertilizers are less pronounced than the problems of groundwater overextraction resulting from electricity subsidies. The policy outcomes in the two fields, however, are remarkably similar: in neither case has it been possible to implement reforms. In both cases, interest-group politics as well as clashing paradigms have been significant barriers to reform. Both cases


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