Partisan federalism and subnational governments' international engagements:Insights from India
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Date
2020
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Publisher
Publius
Abstract
This article situates the international activities of subnational governments in India within the
broader political economy of federalism. It argues that the nature and the extent of subnational
states’engagements in international affairs are a function of the partisan political relationship the
state incumbents have with the national incumbents.The article takes amixedmethods approach.
An analysis of 1,153 episodes of international engagements of India’s states from 1996 to 2017
reveals that shifts in foreign policy engagement of selected state governments primarily reflect
alterations in the subnational incumbents’ political affiliation with the Union government. Several
qualitative case studies shed light on how the central government’s inclusion of subnational
governments’perspectives and representatives in foreign affairs is highly partisan and profoundly
political. Therefore, the Indian case reveals how subnational diplomatic interactions merge
domestic and international politics.