India's Democracy: Electoral Vibrancy, Liberal Deficits

Date: 

Thursday, November 9, 2017, 4:15pm to 5:30pm

Location: 

Ash Center Foyer, 124 Mt. Auburn St., Suite 200-North, Cambridge MA 02138

Join the Ash Center for a seminar featuring Ashutosh Varshney, Director of the Center for Contemporary South Asia, Sol Goldman Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs, Brown University. Scott Mainwaring, the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor for Brazil Studies at HKS will moderate. This event is part of the Ash Center's Democracy in Hard Places Initiative. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and the Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute. 

Refreshments will be served. 

About Ashutosh Varshney

Ashutosh Varshney is Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences at Brown University, where he also directs the Brown-India Initiative. Previously, he taught at Harvard and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His books include Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India; Democracy, Development and the Countryside: Urban-Rural Struggles in India; India in the Era of Economic Reforms; Midnight's Diaspora; Collective Violence in Indonesia; and Battles Half Won: India's Improbable Democracy. His academic articles have appeared in the leading journals of political science and development. His honors include the Guggenheim, Carnegie, Luebbert and Lerner awards. He is a contributing editor for Indian Express, and his guest columns have appeared in many other newspapers, including the Financial Times. He served on the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's Task Force on Millennium Development Goals, and has also served as adviser to the World Bank and United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

About the Democracy in Hard Places Program 

The Ash Center's Democracy in Hard Places research initiative goes beyond current theory on the empirical evidence of democracy's value to look at the structural relationships in democratic practices in the developed and developing world. With a focus on Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Middle East, the program explores potential trade-offs between political and human rights on one hand, and economic development on the other. By leveraging research expertise from across the Ash Center, Democracy in Hard Places seeks to understand why democratic institutions thrive in some countries while failing in others. The program is led by Tarek Masoud, Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations, HKS; and Scott Mainwaring, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor for Brazil Studies, HKS.