Oral Democracy: Deliberation in Indian Village Assemblies

ISBN-13: 9781107019744 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 224 str.

Vijayendra Rao; Paromita Sanyal

Opis

Studies citizens' deliberation on governance and development in Indian democracy, and the influence of state policy and literacy, analysing three hundred village assemblies. This title is also available as Open Access.

Recenzje

'In Oral Democracy, Sanyal and Rao engage in a detailed comparative analysis to illuminate how local state capacity and literacy influence the extent to which an institutionalized system of public collective deliberation (gram sabhas) contributes to the transformation of the practice of citizenship in contemporary India. This rigorous analysis produces a pathbreaking contribution to our understanding of political culture outside the West. Their book should be widely read by social scientists who wish to better understand the broad institutional context in which the poor defend their dignity in an extraordinarily unequal society.' Michele Lamont, Director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University and author of The Dignity of Working men

Spis treści

1. Introduction; 2. Discursive political culture; 3. Political construction, state enactments, and citizen performances; 4. The role of literacy in deliberative democracy; 5. Conclusion: oral democracy.