Although the debate over local democratization has occupied a central place in the national discourse in India ever since independence, local government did not have constitutional status in India until 1993 when a series of landmark amendments to the national Constitution radically transformed the organization of government below the state level. While the Indian Constitution drafted in 1950 provided for democracy at the national and state levels, the 1993 amendments were the culmination of the first national level attempt to institutionalize democracy below the state level in India by mandating regular direct elections to three tiers of local governments or panchayats below the state level. Thus, for the first time since the country's independence in 1947, the system of panchayati raj (or rule of the panchayats) long advocated by Gandhi was enshrined in the constitution as a result of these amendments.

The 1993 constitutional amendments spurred one of the world's largest exercises in instituting and strengthening representation at the local level. Yet, we know little about why Indian government elites took such a radical step to institutionalize democracy below the state level in India. What led India's political leaders to initiate this amendment to give local governments constitutional status over forty years after India's independence? As discussed later, the question poses a puzzle even in light of previous explanations that emphasize pressures from civil society (e.g. Falleti 2005), increases in the power of party members at the local level (e.g. Garman, Haggard, and Willis 2001), or increases in expected representation at the local rather than at the national level (e.g. O'Neill 2005). In addition, while conventional wisdom might dictate that local democratization might be initiated because of its popular appeal or because of its ability to bring about gains in development, I argue that these factors are unlikely to have been the primary impetus behind the amendment. Instead, I seek to establish that the theory described in previous chapters provides the most plausible explanation for the implementation for the amendment.