Co-Ethnicity, Capacity, and Connectivity: Who Becomes a Slum Leader in India?

How do the political brokers essential to machine politics emerge? Auerbach and his fellow researchers address this crucial question through a study of informal slum leaders. They analysis find that shared ethnicity is often trumped by non-ethnic indicators of a broker’s capability and connectivity to urban bureaucracies. These findings shed important light on the origins of patron-client hierarchies and the political shifts engendered by rapid urbanization in India.