Development, Decentralization and Democracy: Exploring Social Capital and Politicization in the Bengal Region Book

	Acknowledgements	6
	List of Acronyms	8
	Glossary	9
	Maps	10
1	A critical introduction to the Social Capital thesis and its supposedly positive implications for development and democratic performance	13
2	Good government performance: the result of social capital formation and a 'deepening of civil society', and/or the outcome of differences in the politicization of civil society?	33
3	Panchayati Raj: Decentralization and popular participation in India and West Bengal	47
4	Towards decentralization and popular participation in Bangladesh	53
5	Comparing institutional policy performance in West Bengal and Bangladesh	57
6	Civil society, effective participation, and the local state in rural West Bengal	73
7	Civil society, effective participation and the local state in rural Bangladesh	109
8	Analysing the generation of social capital, and/or different types of politicization, as possible explanations for local government performance	131
9	Conclusion and some theoretical reflections	151
	Epilogue	157
	References	159
	Index	171