| Summary: | The decision to undertake a structural adjustment program usually comes at a time
when a country is facing a severe economic crisis. In India, the conditions surrounding the
economic crisis of 1991 left Indian policy-makers with little alternative but to pursue liberal
economic policies. This thesis examines three aspects of India's economic crisis, political,
economic and international, in an attempt to explain the Narasimha Rao government's policy
choice. Three dimensions of the decision - timing, scope, and content - are used to simplify
the analysis, and to measure the contributions of various factors. Whereas the ideology and
international systems explanations only play an indirect role in India's policy choice, I argue
that convergence of factors highlighted by the interest group, political institutional and
international financial institutional explanations resulted in India's decision to liberalize its
economy.
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