Author Description

Product Description As an ideology and as a system of governance, democracy has contributed the most to human progress the world over. But for a democracy to be genuinely democratic and representative, that is, of the people, by the people and for the people, it must be made meaningful in implementation and answerable for the lives of all its subjects. In other words, a true democracy is a daily plebiscite. This volume addresses the broad themes of development as freedom, equality and human ascent within the framework of democracy and decentralised governance. Fourteen essays. Diverse in their range of concerns, perspectives and insights the common thread binding them is the emphasis on human development and social inclusion. The volume editors Introduction provides a comprehensive overview of the subject, a broad theoretical framework for the volume, and brief summaries of the essays. The first seven essays interrogate and critique the ideas of democracy, development, and how development has been understood to mean the pursuit of growth that is market driven and measured solely in terms of GNP. This implies that what the GNP cannot measure is not termed growth, which excludes the lives and endeavours of more than half the people of a country like India. Hence, the urgent need to search for alternative redefinitions of the idea of development which is inclusive of all, both at the level of policy and implementation. The other seven essays look at issues like primary education; food security; financing for metropolises (for e.g., Mumbai); caste and gender parity (which India is still struggling to achieve); technology as freedom because technology has the power to create a level playing field for all; decentralisation and innovation in governance, in particular, the Kerala model of development, Latin American experiments in democracy, and China s astounding growth story all of which offer valuable compari