Book excerpt: The essays in this volume present an analytical appraisal of public institutions in India. The purpose here is not just to give a history of these institutions but to ask what explains their performance and what might be learnt from their experience. It assesses the manner in which they assist, thwart, manipulate, and subvert each other. The aim is to provide a complex account of the modalities through which state power is exercised and policy enacted. This study contributes to debates on institutional change and reform that are currently underway in India by bringing more analytical rigour and enlarging the parameters of the debate. These debates are particularly important given that Indian economy and society have changed profoundly in the last decade and a half. Much of the discussion is on how state institutions like the civil service, the courts, the police, parliament, and regulatory institutions will need to be reconfigured to better adapt to changing circumstances.