Public Meetings at the Last Mile

Abstract

Social audits in Andhra Pradesh face an ongoing conundrum: How can they increase participation from NREGA workers while minimizing confrontation with hostile local elites? To answer this question, this chapter analyzes three different types of public meetings, all aimed at increasing participation from marginalized citizens. The gram sabhas—run by lower-level bureaucrats—are mandated but produce no real outcomes. Apolitical and of very little use, the gram sabhas can be seen as the case of an “anti-politics machine” that serves only to fulfill a bureaucratic requirement. By contrast, the rachabanda meeting, coordinated by the local political party, is useful in bringing state-level bureaucrats closer to the village and helping citizens “see the state,” yet fails to offer a deliberative platform. The experimental audit meeting shows the limits of outside actors intervening in local politics when events spiral out of hand, creating chaos and disorder.