CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Politics of Human Rights in India: employment guarantee; land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement; access to information.
• India's Political Economy: Special Economic Zones; economic liberalization; anti-corruption reform and activism.
• Post-Conflict Peacebuilding State-Building: UN Peacebuilding Architecture; gender and peacebuilding; democracy assistance; transitional justice.
• 'Democratic Emerging Powers' and Norm Development at the United Nations: peacebuilding; human rights standards; 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

PUBLICATIONS

Monographs & Edited Collections

• Politics and the Right to Work: India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Oxford University Press, 2017) - co-authored with James Manor
• Power, Policy and Protest: The Politics of India’s Special Economic Zones (Oxford University Press, 2014) – co-edited with Loraine Kennedy and Partha Mukhopadhyay
• Peacebuilding: From Concept to Commission (New York: Routledge, 2013) - sole-authored
• Where Development Meets History, Special Issue, vol. 44, no. 1 of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics (London: Taylor & Francis, 2006) – editor
• Reinventing Accountability: Making Democracy Work for Human Development (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2005) – co-authored with AM Goetz
• Regional Reflections: Comparing Politics Across India’s States (Oxford University Press, 2004) – editor
• The Politics of India’s Next Generation of Economic Reforms, Special Issue of India Review, vol. 3, no. 2 (London: Taylor and Francis, 2004) – co-edited with Sunil Khilnani
• Democratic Politics and Economic Reform in India (Cambridge University Press, 2000) – sole-authored
• Reassessing the Commonwealth (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs/Chatham House, 1997) – sole-authored

Articles, Reports & Working Papers

• "Agency and Accountability: Promoting Women's Participation in Peacebuilding," Feminist Economics, vol. 22, no. 1 (2016), pp. 211-236 - co-authored with Anne Marie Goetz
• "Gender, Security, and Governance: The Case of Sustainable Development Goal 16," Gender and Development, vol. 24, no. 1 (2016) - co-authored with Anne Marie Goetz
• "When and Why Do States Respond to Women's Claims? Understanding Gender-Egalitarian Policy Change in Asia," UNRISD Working Paper No. WP2016-13 (Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, November 2016 - co-authored with Anne Marie Goetz
• "Special Economic Zones: Interrogating the Nexus of Land, Development, and Urbanization," Environment and Urbanization Asia, vol. 6, no. 1 (2015), pp. 1-17 - co-authored with Loraine Kennedy, Partha Mukhopadhyay, and Kanhu C. Pradhan
• "Land, Rights, and Reform in India," Pacific Affairs, vol. 86, no. 3 (Sept 2013), pp. 591-612.
• 'Democratic Emerging Powers and the International Human Rights System,' International Policy Analysis Paper (New York: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2013); co-authored with Emma Mawdsley.
• 'Advancing the UN's Women, Peace and Security Agenda: Political Challenges and Opportunities,' Policy Brief (Oslo: Norwegian Peacebuilding Research Centre, February 2013).
• Report of the Secretary-General on Women's Participation in Peacebuilding, United Nations Secretariat, UN doc A/76/354-S/2010/466, 7 September 2010. (Lead author, while Senior Consultant in the UN Peacebuilding Support Office, Feb-Sept 2010).
• ‘Addressing Sexual Violence in Internationally Mediated Peace Negotiations’ [co-authored with AM Goetz], International Peacekeeping, 17:2 (2010), pp. 261-277.
• 'Re-Engineering the United Nations Peacebuilding Architecture,' Working Paper: The Future of Peacebuilding Project (Oslo: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, 2010).
• ‘Access to Information and Pro-Poor Development: Lessons from Two Cases in India,’ Working Paper, (Atlanta, GA: The Carter Center, February 2008).
• ‘Organizational Change and Institutional Survival: The Case of the U.N. Peacebuilding Commission,’ Seton Hall Law Review, vol. 38 no. 4 (2008), pp. 1327-1364.
• ‘Making the Most of the UN Peacebuilding Commission,’ Briefing Note for Saferworld UK (London) for UK Parliamentary Hearing, May 2008.
• ‘The UN Peacebuilding Commission and the Dissemination of International Norms,’ Working Paper No. 38, Crisis States Programme, London School of Economics (June 2008).
• ‘India’s Unlikely Democracy,’ Journal of Democracy, vol. 18, no. 2 (April 2007), pp. 55-69.
• ‘Democracy, Development and India’s Struggle Against Corruption,’ Public Policy Research (Blackwell Publishers/Institute of Public Policy Research), vol. 13, no. 3 (September-December 2006), pp. 155-163.
• ‘Collateral Benefit: The Iraq War and the Legitimacy of International Trusteeship,’ Dissent, Spring 2006, pp. 72-75.
• ‘Toward a Networked Aid Structure: Why Development Assistance Should be Routed Through Transnational Networks of Government Officials from Donor and Recipient Countries,’ Working Paper, Workshop on Politics and the New Aid Modalities, Columbia University, January 2006.
• ‘Reservation Politics in Rajasthan,’ Working Paper, Crisis States Programme, London School of Economics, December 2004.
• ‘Labor Policy and the Second Generation of Economic Reform in India,’ India Review, vol. 3, no. 2 (November 2004), pp. 333-363.
• ‘The Limits to the Constituent Diplomacy Paradigm: India’s States and the Making of Foreign Economic Policy,’ Publius: The Journal of Federalism, vol. 34, no. 3 (Autumn 2004), pp. 63-81.
• ‘How Federalism Influences India’s Domestic Politics of WTO Engagement (And Is Itself Affected in the Process),’ Asian Survey (University of California Press), vol. 43, no. 4 (2003), pp. 598-621.
• ‘International Development Institutions and National Economic Contexts: Neoliberalism Encounters Indigenous Political Traditions,’ Economy and Society, vol. 32, no. 4 (2003), pp. 584-610.
• ‘Institutionalization and Malawi’s PRSP’ [co-authored with M Tsoka], Development Policy Review, vol. 21, no. 3 (2003), pp. 197-215.
• ‘India and the Trade-and-Labour-Standards-Controversy,’ Daxiyangguo, vol. 1, no. 3 (2003), pp. 129-138.
• ‘Hybrid Forms of Accountability: Citizen Engagement in Institutions of Public-Sector Oversight,’ [co-authored with AM Goetz], Public Management Review, vol. 3, no. 3 (2001), pp. 363-384.
• ‘Voice, Accountability and Human Development: The Emergence of a New Agenda’ [co-authored with AM Goetz], Background Paper for United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2002: Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World (New York: UNDP, 2002).
• ‘Bringing Citizen Voice and Client Focus into Service Delivery’ [co-author], IDS Working Paper 138 (Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, 2001).
• ‘Mainstreaming the Poverty-Reduction Agenda: An Analysis of Institutional Mechanisms to Support Pro-Poor Policy Making in Six African Countries’ [co-authored with M Greeley], IDS Research Report 51 (Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, 2001).
• ‘Reconceptualising Transparency: Grassroots Movements for Accountability to the Poor,’ in United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), Cities In A Globalizing World: Global Report On Human Settlements, (2001), pp. 220-222.
• ‘Appearances and Reality in Indian Politics,’ Government and Opposition, vol. 35, no. 2 (2000), pp. 49-66.
• ‘Accounts and Accountability: Theoretical Implications of the Right-to-Information Movement in India’ [co-authored with AM Goetz], Third World Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 3 (1999), pp. 603-622.
• ‘Constraints on Civil Society’s Capacity to Curb Corruption: Lessons from the Indian Experience’ [co-authored with AM Goetz], IDS Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 4 (October 1999), pp. 39-49.
• ‘India’s Electoral Result: An Unholy Alliance Between Nationalism and Regionalism,’ Briefing Paper No. 42 (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, March 1998).
• ‘The Continued Democratization of Indian Democracy: Regionalization, Social Change, and the 1996 General Election,’ Democratization, vol. 4, no. 1 (1996), pp. 57-72.
• ‘Theorising the Politics of Economic Adjustment: Lessons from the Indian Case,’ Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, vol. XXIII, no. 1 (1995), pp. 1-24.
• ‘Liberal Democracy and the Political Management of Structural Adjustment in India: Conceptual Tensions in the Good Government Agenda,’ IDS Bulletin, vol. 26, no. 2 (April 1995), pp. 37-48.
• ‘Where the BJP Survived: The Rajasthan Assembly Elections of 1993,’ Economic and Political Weekly, vol. XXIX, no. 11 (12 March 1994), pp. 635-41.

Book Chapters

• "Advice and Dissent: The Federal Politics of Reforming India's Land Acquisition Legislation," in R. Nagaraj and S. Motiram (eds), Political Economy of Contemporary India (Cambridge University Press, 2017), pp. 307-330
• "Politics of Social Protection: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh," in Louise Tillin, Rajeshwari Deshpande, and K.K. Kailash (eds), Politics of Welfare: Comparisons Across Indian States (Oxford University Press, 2016) - co-authored with James Manor
• 'India's SEZ Policy: The Political Implications of "Permanent Reform",' in Rob Jenkins, Loraine Kennedy and Partha Mukhopadhyay, Power, Policy and Protest: The Politics of India’s Special Economic Zones (Oxford University Press, 2014)
• 'The Politics of Post-Conflict Peacebuilding,' in Thomas Weiss and Rorden Wilkinson (eds), International Organization and Global Governance (New York: Routledge, 2013)
• ‘State Capitalism: Provincial Governance and Protest Politics in India’s Special Economic Zones,’ in Sudha Pai (ed), Handbook of Politics in Indian States (Oxford University Press, 2013).
• ‘Embedding the Right to Information: The Uses of Sector-Specific Transparency Regimes,’ in Sina Odugbemi and Taeku Lee (eds), Accountability through Public Opinion: From Inertia to Public Action (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2011).
• ‘The Politics of India’s Special Economic Zones,’ in Stuart Corbridge, John Harriss, Sanjay Reddy, and Sanjay Ruparelia (eds), India’s Great Transformation (New York: Routledge, 2011)
• ‘Politics and NGOs in India,’ in Niraja Gopal Jayal and Pratap Bhanu Mehta (eds), The Oxford Companion to Indian Politics (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010).
• ‘India’s Civil Society,’ in Peter Burnell and Vicky Randall (eds), Politics in the Developing World, 2^nd edition (Oxford University Press, 2008).
• ‘Political Skills: Introducing Reform by Stealth,’ in Rahul Mukherji (ed), India’s Economic Transition: The Politics of Reforms (Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 170-201.
• ‘The Role of Political Institutions in Promoting Accountability,’ in A Shah (ed), Performance Accountability and Combating Corruption (Washington DC: The World Bank, 2007).
• ‘Citizen Activism and Public Accountability: Lessons from Case Studies in India’ [co-authored with AM Goetz], in Alnoor Ebrahim and Edward Weisband (eds), Forging Global Accountabilities: Participation, Pluralism and Public Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
• ‘Civil Society Versus Corruption in India,’ in Sumit Ganguly, Larry Diamond, and Marc F. Plattner (eds), The State of India’s Democracy (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), pp. 161-167.
• ‘The Politics of Economic Liberalization,’ in Stanley Wolpert (ed), Encyclopedia of India (New York: Scribner and Sons, 2006).
• ‘Accountability and the WTO Dispute-Settlement System,’ in Arthur Benz and Yannis Papadopoulos (eds), Governance and Democracy: Comparing National, European and International Experiences (London: Routledge/ECPR Studies in European Political Science, 2006), pp. 252-272.
• ‘The NDA and the Politics of Economic Reform,’ in Katherine Adeney and Lawrence Saez (eds), Coalition Politics and Hindu Nationalism in India (London: Routledge, 2005).
• ‘Accountability’ [co-authored with AM Goetz], in Adam Kuper and Jessica Kuper (eds), The Social Science Encyclopedia (New York: Routledge, 2004).
• ‘In Varying States of Decay: The Politics of Anti-Corruption in Maharashtra and Rajasthan,’ in Rob Jenkins (ed), Regional Reflections: Comparing Politics Across India’s States (Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 219-252.
• ‘The Ideologically Embedded Market: Political Legitimation and Economic Reform in India,’ in Mark Bevir and Frank Trentmann (eds), Markets in Historical Context: Ideas and Politics in the Modern World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 201-223.
• ‘Malawi’ (co-authored with M Tsoka), in David Booth (ed), Fighting Poverty in Africa: Are PRSPs Making a Difference? (London: ODI, 2003), pp. 119-152.
• ‘Bias and Capture: Corruption, Poverty and the Limits of Civil Society in India’ (co-authored with AM Goetz), in Marc Blecher and Robert Benewick (eds), Asian Politics in Development (London: Frank Cass, 2003), pp. 109-22.
• ‘Mistaking Governance for Politics: Foreign Aid, Democracy and the Construction of Civil Society,’ in Sudipta Kaviraj and Sunil Khilnani (eds.), Civil Society: History and Possibilities (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 250-268.
• ‘The Emergence of the Governance Agenda: Sovereignty, Neo-Liberal Bias and the Politics of International Development,’ in Vandana Desai & Robert Potter (eds), The Companion to Development Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp 485-489.
• ‘La Reforme economique liberale et les diverses conceptions de la democratie en Inde,’ in S. Mappa (ed.), Le Lien social du Nord au Sud (Paris: Karthala, 1999), pp. 328-354.
• ‘Rajput Hindutva: Caste Politics, Regional Identity, and Hindu Nationalism in Contemporary Rajasthan,’ in Christophe Jaffrelot and Thomas Blom Hansen (eds.), The BJP and the Compulsions of Politics in India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 101-120.
• ‘The Developmental Implications of Federal Political Institutions in India,’ in Mark Robinson and Gordon White (eds.), The Democratic Developmental State: Political and Institutional Design (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 187-214.
• ‘The Politics of Protecting the Poor During Adjustment in India: The Case of Maharashtra,’ in U. Thakkar and M. Kulkarni (eds.), Politics in Maharashtra (Bombay: Himalaya Publishing, 1995), pp. 195-212.

Reviews

• Review of Tariq Thachil, Elite Parties, Poor Voters (Cambridge University Press), in Pacific Affairs, vol. 89, no. 2 (June 2016), pp. 461-463
• Review of Sarbeswar Sahoo, Civil Society and Democratization in India: Institutions, Ideologies, and Interests (Routledge 2013), in Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, vol. 53, no. 2 (2015), pp. 226-228
• Review of Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya, Why Growth Matters: How Economic Growth in India Reduced Poverty and the Lessons for Other Developing Countries (PublicAffairs, 2013); and Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen, An Uncertain Glory: India and Its Contradictions (Princeton University Press, 2013), in Studies in Indian Politics, vol. 2, no. 1 (Sage, June 2014). 
• 'Realising the Right to Work,' Economic and Political Weekly, 16 March 2012, pp. 29-33.
  
• Review of Amaney A. Jamal, Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), in Democratiya, No. 11, Winter 2007.
• Review of Paul Kennedy, The Parliament of Man: The Past, Present, and Future of the United Nations (New York: Random House, 2006), in Democratiya, No. 7, Winter 2006.
• Review of S.N. Eisenstadt, Paradoxes of Democracy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), British Journal of Sociology, vol. 52, no. 1 (2001), pp. 181-82.
• ‘Turning Princes into Subjects,’ Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, vol. 38, no. 1 (2000), pp. 103-111.
• Review of A. Hoogvelt, Globalization and the Post Colonial World (New York: Macmillan, 1997), in Sociological Review, vol. 46, No. 2 (May 1998).
• Review of World Bank, India: Sustaining Rapid Economic Growth (Washington, 1997) & M. Pigato et al (eds), South Asia’s Integration into the World Economy (Washington: World Bank, 1997), in Contemporary South Asia, vol. 7, no. 3 (Nov1998), pp. 384-385.
• Review of Fatima Mernissi, Islam and Democracy: Fear of the Modern World (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1992), in Contemporary South Asia, vol. 5, no. 6, (November 1996).
• Review of Barbara Crossette, India: Facing the Twenty-First Century (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), in Contemporary South Asia, vol. 5, no. 1 (March 1996), pp. 104-106.

Media etc

• "The Judiciary and India's Democracy," National Herald (Delhi), 26 July 2017
• "India's Costly Embrace of Israel," The Diplomat, 3 Juliy 2017
• "India's Democracy: Ill but Not Illiberal," Washington Post, op-ed, 31 March 2017
• "Democracy and the Political Durability of Social and Economic Rights in India: Electoral Outcomes and the Fate of Recently Adopted Legislation in India," in P. Burnell, L. Rakner, and V Randall (eds), Politics in the Developing World, 5th Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), online resource center "think piece"
• "Regrettably, America's Foreign Aid Program Must Exit the Democracy-Promotion Business," Trump's First 100 Days: What to Expect, Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, January 2017
• "Statement and Testimony to the Parliament of Canada," House of Commons, Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, RE: Employment-Creation and Inclusive Peacebuilding, Ottawa, 3 May 2016
• "A Grassroots Revolution, The Hindu, 1 March 2016
• "The Practical is the Political: The UN's Global Study on Women, Peace and Security," Peace Operations Review (New York: NYU Center on International Cooperation, November 2015)
• "Missed Opportunities: Gender and the UN's Peace Operations and Peacebuilding Reviews," Peace Operations Review (New York: NYU Center on International Cooperation, July 2015) - co-authored with Anne Marie Goetz
• 'Is Narendra Modi India's Reagan or Nixon?' ForeignPolicy.com, 29 April 2014. 
• 'What will a Modi-led govt do with MGNREGA?', Times of India, 13 April 2014.
• 'Is "Programmatic Politics" Possible in the Absence of Party Programmes? Assessing the Alleged Demise of Patronage Politics in India", Ballots and Bullets (University of Nottingham), 2 April 2014.
• 'In Fight Over New Global Development Goals, First Round Goes to Democracy (Sort of),' Comment, Roosevelt House Forum, Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, 30 May 2013.
• 'Le Dynamism de la Societe Civil,' La Croix (Paris), 18 January 2013.
• ‘Arab Spring, Indian Summer,’ Christian Science Monitor, 1 August 2011.
• ‘Women, Food Security and Peacebuilding,’ openDemocracy.net, 28 June 2011.
• ‘Sexual Violence as a War Tactic: Security Council Resolution 1888, Next Steps,’ United Nations Chronicle, [co-authored with AM Goetz], vol 47, no 1 (2010).
• ‘Deepening Democracy by Building Gender Equality,’ [coauthored with AM Goetz], openDemocracy.net, 18 Jan 2010.
• ‘The Politics of SEZs in India: Promise and Pitfalls,’ India in Transition (Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania).
• ‘The Middle Classes: Unlikely Allies for Better Governance?,’ GlobalFuture, No. 3, 2007.
• ‘UN-Workable: America’s Movements for World Government During “The Long 1940s,”’ BBK Magazine, Birkbeck College, University of London, Spring 2006.
• ‘Voice and Accountability in Service Delivery’ [co-authored with AM Goetz], Development Outreach (Washington, DC: World Bank Institute, March 2004).
• ‘Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, Oxfam,’ The Guardian, 7 October 2002.
• ‘Gender-Sensitive Local Auditing: Initiatives from India to Build Accountability to Women’ [co-authored with AM Goetz], Development Outreach (Washington, DC: World Bank Institute, Spring 2001).
• ‘Global Views Can be Short-Sighted,’ Times Higher Education Supplement, 24 Nov 2000.  Review of five books on globalization.
• ‘Indian Summer Looks Set to Become a Long Autumn,’ Wall Street Journal, 11 September 2000.
• ‘The Goa Right to Information Act, One Year On,’ [co-authored with AM Goetz] Transparency (New Delhi: National Campaign for People’s Right to Information), March 1999.
• ‘Politics of Information,’ [co-authored with AM Goetz] Business India (Mumbai), 4-17 May 1998.
• Regular contributor to WorldLink magazine (World Economic Forum), 1997-2000.  ['The Knot of India' (1997); 'Coalition for Businesses' (1997); 'Regional Rifts' (1998); 'Clashing Over the Future' (1998); 'What If India Had Political Stability' (1999); 'Hit and Myth' (1999); 'Perfect Timing' (2000); and 'A Tax of the Worst Kind' (2000)].
• ‘Rajasthan Assembly Results,’ Frontline (Chennai), 20 December 1993.
• ‘Green Democracy in India,’ The Progressive, May 1990, pp. 15-16.
• ‘Bhopal: Five Years On,’ In These Times, 18-31 July 1990, pp. 12-13.