Abstract:
This paper is about the discursive aspects of reform debates, more
particularly about their rhetorical forms. In the debates on economic
reforms in India, communities of scholars seem to have been talking
past each other, each side equally convinced that it has the ‘Truth”.
Persistent disagreement among economists on important public policy
issues sounds disconcerting to others. We argue that an appreciation of
the rhetoric (i.e. the art of persuasion) might help us understand the
nature of disagreement in reform debates. Through a close reading of
the literature on economic reforms in India we attempt to examine the
rhetorical devices – logic, facts, metaphor and story – that the participants
in the reform debates have been using to persuade their audience.
