Local Democracy In South Asia

This volume, the first in a new series on governance, conflict, and civic action in South Asia, focuses on the larger countries of South Asia--Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and especially Nepal. The 15 essays in this volume analyze democracy both as a process and as a value. The essays also examine in ethnographic detail the way in which democracy is actually experienced in South Asia, ranging far beyond conventional political structures to look at conflict resolution, rhetorics of foreign aid, ethnic organizations, Maoist practices of local government, Dalit resistance, and so on. Many of the processes that are analyzed in depth in the Nepalese context are shown to have their analogues in other South Asian countries. By putting Nepalese political and social processes firmly within their South Asian context, the current political crisis in Nepal is shown to be neither so radically new and different, nor so insoluble as it might appear. At the same time, the view from the peripheries of South Asia throws into relief the extent to which India has evolved away from the traditional caste-determined patron-client structures that once formed the framework of political action there. The volume is a significant contribution to the study of how local democracy actually operates in South Asia. It will be of interest to political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, and development specialists.

The book provides an analysis of local government in five South Asian countries; their evolution from the colonial period to present, and recent steps towards democratisation, decentralization, debureaucratization and fiscal autonomy. Most of these countries share a common colonial legacy and an administrative framework inherited from the British, yet, their paths to nation-building and political development have been quite deverse.

"This report seeks to shift the locus of discourse on democracy away from the global North to 'most of the world'. It does so by examining democratic experience in South Asia - a region marked by poverty, illiteracy, complex diversities, and multiple and overlapping structures of social hierarchy-and by daring to ask not just what democracy has done to South Asia but also what South Asia has done to democracy. Based on the first - ever social scientific survey of political opinions and attitudes across the five countries in the region-Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka-the report offers a fresh analysis of the promise of democracy for the ordinary people, its institutional slippages, obstacles in its functioning, and its mixed outcomes. The report combines public opinion data with expert assessment, case studies, and dialogue with democracy activists."--BOOK JACKET.

This book examines the issues of urban governance and local democracy in South India. It is the first comprehensive volume that offers comparative frameworks on urban governance across all states in the region: Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The book focuses on governance in small district-level cities and raises crucial questions such as the nature of urban planning, major outstanding issues for urban local governance, conditions of civic amenities such as drinking water and sanitation and problems of social capital in making urban governance work in these states. It emphasizes on both efficient urban governance and effective local democracy to meet the challenges of fast-paced urbanization in these states while presenting policy lessons from their urbanization processes. Rich in empirical data, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of political studies, public administration, governance, public policy, development studies and urban studies, as well as practitioners and non-governmental organizations.

This book is an in-depth empirical study of four Asian and African attempts to create democratic, decentralised local governments in the late 1980s and 1990s. The case studies of Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Karnataka (India) and Bangladesh focus upon the enhancement of participation; accountability between people, politicians and bureaucrats; and, most importantly, on whether governmental performance actually improved in comparison with previous forms of administration. The book is systematically comparative, and based upon extensive popular surveys and local field work. It makes an important contribution to current debates in the development literature on whether 'good governance' and decentralisation can provide more responsive and effective services for the mass of the population - the poor and disadvantaged who live in the rural areas.

4. King vs. Parliament: Democratization in Nepal

This volume offers a collection of lucid, theoretically stimulating articles that explore and analyse the institutions and values which are salient in understanding political practices in South Asia. Combining a wide range of theoretical and empirical approaches, and blending the work of experts long established in their respective fields with refreshing and innovative approaches by younger scholars, this collaborative and cross-disciplinary endeavour facilitates a deeper understanding of the subcontinent's diverse and complex political and democratic practices in the 21st century.

Contributed articles.