Democracy is hailed around the world as the highest form of political organisation. However, transparency, accountability, and participation, key to a functioning democracy, has globally come under increasing threat. With rising statelessness across the world, the concept of citizenship itself is now under question.
Unpacking Participatory Democracy offers some ‘inclusive’ approaches to the ideas of development and democracy. This volume brings together a range of practitioners who have spent decades building organisations and collectives that engage with the practice of democracy, in pursuit of equality and justice. Together, they explore the realities of democratic practice, and combine theoretical perspectives with empirical case studies.
This volume also examines the possibilities of recapturing the lost power of democratic dissent, dialogue, and disagreement, and platforms for debate in the last decade all over the world.
Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy is a social activist, professor, union organiser and former civil servant, has been living and working with people. She was the president of the National Federation of Indian Women and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan.
Suchi Pande is Scholar in Residence, Accountability Research Center at American University in Washington DC. She was Secretary of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information in India.
Abbreviations Acknowledgements
Introduction Aruna Roy and Suchi Pande
Musings on Music Unpacking the Links between Culture and Democracy S. Anandalakshmy
1. Culture and Democracy T. M. Krishna
2. Social Accountability through Decentralisation Learnings from a Quarter-century of Experience in Kerala S. M. Vijayanand
3. From the ‘Right to Information’ to ‘People’s Data Rights’ The Digital Frontier for Participatory Democracy Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami
4. Desiderata C. K. Mathew 5. Poor Implementation of ‘Power to the People’ in Urban Areas A Case Study of Karnataka Kathyayini Chamaraj
6. Including the Excluded Mamta Jaitly
7. Notes on Building Democracy in Rural India Kenneth Winston
8. Building a Culture of Democracy Brick by Brick Nikhil Dey and Rakshita Swamy
9. Including the Wisdom of Pastoral Peoples in India’s Democracy Rosamma Thomas
10. Participatory Democracy How Did it All Go Wrong? Shaheen Anam
11. Right to Information Curtailed Illegally and Unconstitutionally Shailesh Gandhi
12. Before Corona Infected the Indefinite Protests The (Il)legal Story behind Shaheen Bagh M. Sridhar Acharyulu
13. Participatory Democracy and Institutional Amnesia India Teesta Setalvad
A Coda Aruna Roy
Notes on the Contributors Index