Title: Bureaucratic norms and state capacity
Description: Himachal Pradesh has surged ahead of other Indian states in implementing universal primary education. Through a combination of field research methods, this paper connects these achievements to bureaucratic norms, unwritten rules within the state that guide the behavior of public officials and structure their relations with civic agencies outside the state. Bureaucratic norms are a critical component of state capacity that shape when and how public agencies implement policies effectively on behalf of marginalized citizens.