Civil Society, Indian Elections and Democracy Today

Sastry, S.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2464948

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…They show dissatisfaction and "below average" scores for all top expectations from government, including employment, healthcare, education, drinking water, roads, public transport, and women's empowerment [36,52]. Another study showed a significantly lower level of trust in government than in NGOs and businesses [38]. Surveys in 2017 and 2018 in India by the Pew Research Center originally indicated high satisfaction with the national government in place after the regime change in 2014, which resulted in a new party system and renationalization [53].…”

Section: Disaffection With Local Government Decision-makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This research led to the realization that to successfully implement deliberative democracy initiatives in the Indian context, it will be important to include India's traditionally strong grassroots organic participation [35]. Additionally, it was realized that it will be important to address the decreasing trust in Indian governments and decision-making [36][37][38]. One way to address this democratic deficit is via the use of an independent third party [39].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Can Deliberative Democracy Work in Urban India?

Menon

Hartz-Karp

2021

Urban Science

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India faces extensive challenges of rapid urbanization and deficits in human well-being and environmental sustainability. Democratic governance is expected to strengthen public policies and efforts towards sustainability. This article presents a study in Pune, India, which aimed at exploring perceptions about public participation in urban governance and the potential of high-quality public deliberation to meet deficits. The research reveals disaffection of the public with government decision-making and government-led participation. Further, it shows that people are interested in participating in community life and seek to be partners in civic decision-making, but find themselves unable to do so. The study illustrates that high-quality public deliberations facilitated by an independent third party can provide a satisfactory space of participation, learning, and developing balanced outcomes. Citizens expressed readiness for partnership, third-party facilitation, and support from civic advocacy groups. Challenges with regard to government commitment to deliberative democracy will need to be overcome for a purposeful shift from conventional weak to empowered participation of ordinary citizens in civic decision-making. We anticipate that while institutionalization of high-quality public deliberations may take time, civil society-led public deliberations may help raise community expectations and demand for induced deliberative democracy.

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Section: Disaffection With Local Government Decision-makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Deliberative Democracy Work in Urban India?

Menon

Hartz-Karp

2021

Urban Science

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“…In this instance, the goals are to achieve good governance. This is currently difficult to achieve given the noted prevalence of exclusionary organic participation, as well as the rising levels of public distrust in India's democratic governance [71], and the unsatisfactory experiences with most governmentinduced participation in Indian cities. We propose that this could be resolved if there was an independent third party, tasked with overseeing good governance.…”

Section: An Independent Third-partymentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutional innovations in public participation for improved local governance and urban sustainability in India

Menon

Hartz-Karp

2019

Sustain Earth

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Background: Improving urban governance is an imperative for India, with its accelerated rate of urbanization, distrust of government, and inadequate public involvement in policy development and decision-making. Deliberative democracy initiatives in other parts of the world, and similar experiences in rural India have demonstrated their effectiveness at resolving complex issues with decisions that are acceptable to constituents, and are seen to be in the public good. Results: Learnings are drawn from two cases of action research in Pune, India about achieving inclusion and deliberation in public engagement efforts, and their influence on public decision-making. The stratified and complex socioeconomic and political context in India, power imbalances, inadequacy of decentralized governance structures, and information for civic decision-making makes public engagement challenging. From this experience, we inductively developed a potential framework for good governance, of deliberative democracy initiatives (induced participation), inclusive civil society (organic and invented) participation, overseen by an independent third party. It is contended that such a framework can enable city governments, in India and elsewhere, to resolve complex urban sustainability challenges with more implementable decisions. Conclusions: Based on what was learnt from the Pune case studies, this article suggests that a combination of leaders willing to pioneer good governance, capable third-party facilitators, and strong organic participation groups working together through the structured approaches of deliberative democracy can effectively integrate the public into civic decision-making. However, to implement deliberative democracy in urban areas in India, the framework proposed will require advocacy at multiple levels. It will be critical to find 'champions' within political, administrative and civil society willing to pioneer deliberative democracy initiatives, to build professional capacity to conduct high quality deliberation, and to ensure the outcomes of such processes are influential. Good governance will rely on an ecosystem supporting such democratic renewal.

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“…Urban governance in India is mostly judged to be problematic (Kapoor, 2017). An extensive survey in India by the Association for Democratic Reform in 2014, showed that citizens are highly dissatisfied with the performance of government on issues that matter the most, including employment, essential services (drinking water, education, health, electricity), infrastructure (roads, public transport), lower food prices, law and order and women's security (Sastry, 2014). There is a high degree of criminalization of politics (ibid.)…”

Section: A Focus On Community Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking Traditional ‘Organic’ and ‘Induced’ Public Participation with Deliberative Democracy: Experiments in Pune, India

Menon¹,

Hartz-Karp²

2019

Journal of Education for Sustainable Development

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Resolving urban challenges or ‘wicked problems’ is a dilemma for most governments, especially in developing countries, and India is a case in point. Collaborative, dialogue-based approaches have been posited as critical to addressing wicked problems. This would require a reform of Indian cities’ governance systems to enable citizens to be embedded in decision-making about complex issues. This article contends that while India’s traditional forms of civic participation can provide a strong foundation for reform, new forms of representative deliberative, influential public participation, that is, deliberative democracy, will be important. Traditional organic and induced participation examples in India are overviewed in terms of their strengths and gaps. Two deliberative democracy case studies in Pune, India, are described, and their potential for reform is assessed. Traditional, together with innovative, induced and organic participation in governance, will be needed to overcome significant pitfalls in governance if Indian cities are to become more capable of addressing urban sustainability challenges.

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Civil Society, Indian Elections and Democracy Today

Cited by 3 publications

References 3 publications

Can Deliberative Democracy Work in Urban India?

Can Deliberative Democracy Work in Urban India?

Institutional innovations in public participation for improved local governance and urban sustainability in India

Linking Traditional ‘Organic’ and ‘Induced’ Public Participation with Deliberative Democracy: Experiments in Pune, India

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