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In my project with Alison Post (Global Metropolitan Studies, Political Science), we’re exploring the effects of converting large villages from rural governance structures like panchayats to urban municipal institutions in Rajasthan, geographically the largest state in India. We are interested in understanding how conversion affects the nature of local politics and service delivery. So far, we have interviewed many state-level and local bureaucrats and politicians, including MLAs, chairpersons, and ward-level councilors. This provides insights into how rapid urbanization in India is affecting the character of local governance. We are at a preliminary stage of the work. As we move ahead, we would like to understand the effects of the transition from rural to urban local bodies on several levels. As villages become towns and cities, new infrastructure is needed, such as drainage, piped water networks, street lighting, and road infrastructure. Cities must also generate additional revenue via taxation to fund this infrastructure. Do cities mobilize more revenue after converting from panchayat to municipal status, and how does that help the city’s infrastructural needs? Moreover, electoral dynamics also change as cities gain urban status: unlike in the cities, candidates fight elections without a party’s nomination. Does this transition affect the kind of politicians who gain access to the municipal office, and with what consequences? We hope to answer these questions in our future fieldwork and data analysis. ~ Sharik Laliwala is a third-year Ph.D. student in political science at UC Berkeley. He is interested in studying residential segregation, ethnicity, city politics, and municipal governance in India.

Our first visit to Guatemala was a very positive and meaningful experience. The trip gave us key insights for planning the longer visit in January 2025. During this visit, we made significant connections with local activists and artists, such as human rights advocate Martha Lidia Cholotillo and local music producer and rapper Jasy Mendoza in San Juan la Laguna. This beautiful town sits at the shoreline of Lake Atitlan, a unique lake surrounded by mountains and volcanoes in what once was a vast crater. We interviewed both of them for this project, and Jasy will assist us with the music for the documentary. It is essential to highlight that they utilize the Maya Kosmovision to guide their work as artists and human rights activists, particularly regarding language and revolutionary dialogue in the community.   ~Javier Mateos-Campos with Dr. Felipe Kan

This summer I spent several weeks in Maharasta, India, studying the nature of elections to village councils. The project I am working on is exploring the shift from indirect to direct elections. When a politician is indirectly elected, she is selected by a group of other politicians, who were themselves elected by citizens. Direct election is when a politician is chosen by the broader electorate that she represents. While direct elections are supposed to allow citizens a direct say in selecting who will represent their interests, indirect elections are thought to produce well-qualified politicians who can bring about effective change. So the question my research hoped to address was interested do direct elections lead to better governance? There are many debates among political scientists about the best methods to use to answer such a question but I took the approach a “policy experiment” in over 600 Maharastan village councils, some of which were elected directly, and others indirectly. To do so I shadowed and conducted interviews with hundreds of rural politicians and citizens. I left Maharasta with two main and somewhat surprising takeaways. First, I discovered that leaders that were directly elected by voters were actually more efficient while in office. Compared to their indirectly elected counterparts, they scored higher on authority and participation in governance . However, a big catch is that at the same time, these leaders come from more advantaged backgrounds. Directly elected leaders are more likely to be men, politically experienced, and landowners. That is to say they were socially further removed from those who elected them. These findings were not just surprising they have important implications for policymakers undertaking electoral design. In short, which type of electoral system is best equipped to achieve dual goals of effective government and the representation of diverse groups? Do we always have to sacrifice one goal in pursuit of the other? ~Alyssa Heinze