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The question of why some countries have democratic regimes and others do not is a significant issue in comparative politics. This book looks at India and Pakistan, two countries with clearly contrasting political regime histories, and presents an argument on why India is a democracy and Pakistan is not. Focusing on the specificities and the nuances of each state system, the author examines in detail the balance of authority and power between popular or elected politicians and the state apparatus through substantial historical analysis. India and Pakistan are both large, multi-religious and multi-lingual countries sharing a geographic and historical space that in 1947, when they became independent from British rule, gave them a virtually indistinguishable level of both extreme poverty and inequality. All of those factors militate against democracy, according to most theories, and in Pakistan democracy did indeed fail very quickly after Independence. It has only been restored as a façade for military-bureaucratic rule for brief periods since then. In comparison, after almost thirty years of democracy, India had a brush with authoritarian rule, in the 1975-76 Emergency, and some analysts were perversely reassured that the India exception had been erased. But instead, after a momentous election in 1977, democracy has become stronger over the last thirty years. Providing a comparative analysis of the political systems of India and Pakistan as well as a historical overview of the two countries, this textbook constitutes essential reading for students of South Asian History and Politics. It is a useful and balanced introduction to the politics of India and Pakistan. 1. Introduction: Why India is a Democracy and Pakistan is not (yet?) a Democracy Part 1 : The First Thirty Years of Independence 2. Inheritances of Colonial rule 3. Constitutional & Political Choices, in the initial years 4. Institutionalizing Democracy 5. Who (Really) Governs? Part 2: From 1977 to the present 6. 1977 as a Turning Point? 7. Religion as an Explanation 8. External Influences 9. Clearly Diverging Paths 10. Prospects for Path Convergence in the Next Decades 11. Conclusion Philip Oldenburg is a Research Scholar at the South Asia Institute of Columbia University, where he has taught political science since 1977. He has done field research in India on local self-government, and on national elections and has been editor or co-editor of ten books in the India Briefing series. 'This book deals with a most interesting and rather unexplored problem: why has India become a robust democracy and Pakistan ended up by being a military-ruled country while both of them share similar cultural features and emerged from the same history (including the colonial experience)? Philip Oldenburg has not only chosen an excellent topic, he is also very well informed and gets his facts right. To present such an ambitious comparison in this format is a tour de force.' -- Christophe Jaffrelot, Senior Research Fellow CNRS, France 'This fine book, full of insight and wisdom, reflects Philip Oldenburg’s long scholarly engagement with the study of South Asian politics, and offers a magisterial synthesis of a wide literature in developing what will surely stand as the definitive comparative analysis of the political systems of India and Pakistan.' -- John Harriss, School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University, Canada 'This is the first major attempt to solve the puzzle of democratic divergence by looking at two countries with near-identical cultural, political, and social origins. Dr. Oldenburg's book is uniquely informed by deep familiarity with both India and Pakistan, and by a solid grasp of the relevant scholarly literature. It is a landmark in both regional studies and comparative political analysis, and will inform all future work on the 　democratization process.' -- Stephen P. Cohen, Brookings Institution, USA \"It's impossible for this review to do full justice to this richly-detailed, cool-headed, well-grounded must read for anyone interested in South Asia--or in the study of democracy.\" -- Patricia Lee Sharpe, Whirled View \"The book is carefully researched, well documented, and clearly argued...Policy analysts, journalists, and students interested in the contemporary politics of India and Pakistan will benefit considerably from a careful perusal of this book.\" -- Sumit Ganguly, H-Asia \"This book offers a nuanced assessment which shows that while India and Pakistan have not converged on an authoritarian model, they have much in common... Thoughtful questions are asked, difficult issues considered and a large amount of material is synthesised. Scholars, students and teachers alike will find this book very useful.\" - Andrew Wyatt, University of Bristol, UK; Pacific Affairs: Volume 85, No. 2 - June 2012

Since the structural change in Indian society that began in the 1990s-the result of the liberalisation of the economy, devolution of power, and decentralisation of the government-an unprecedented, democratic transformation has been taking place. This has caused the emergence of unexpected coalitions and alliances across diverse castes, classes, and religious groups according to the issues involved. In this volume, we intend to understand this deepening of democracy by employing a new analytical framework of the 'vernacular public arena' where negotiations, dialogues, debates, and contestations occur among 'vernacular publics'. This reflects the profound changes in Indian democracy as diverse social groups, including dalits, adivasis, and Other Backward Classes; minorities, women; individuals from rural areas, towns, and cities; the poor and the new middle classes-the 'vernacular publics'-participate in new ways in India's public life. This participation is not confined to electoral politics, but has extended to the public arenas in which these groups have begun to raise their voice publicly and to negotiate and engage in dialogue with each other and the wider world. Contributors demonstrate that the participation of vernacular publics has resulted in the broadening of Indian democracy itself which focuses on the ways of governance, improving people's lives, life chances, and living environments. An original, comprehensive study that furthers our understanding of the unfolding political dynamism and the complex reshuffling and reassembling taking place in Indian society and politics, this book will be relevant to academics with an interest in South Asian Studies from a variety of disciplines, including Political Science, Sociology, Anthropology, and Media Studies.

Civil society is often expected to rise above historical and contemporary socio-economic forces such as the neoliberal economic policy and undertake the transformation of a stratified society to an egalitarian society conducive to democracy. Democracy, Civil Society and Governance is an endeavour to critically examine such expectations. The book focuses on the interplay of democracy, civil society and public policy implementation, and addresses the role of civil society in terms of the changing nature of the economy and the condition of the working class. It highlights the reinforcement of hegemonic value systems by the contemporary mainstream civil society as well as the role of the pro-poor civil society in supporting and mobilizing the disadvantaged for their rights and justice. The book also critically evaluates government policies and their implementation in the domains of education, public health, employment, social upliftment and environment.

\"Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on an Indian soil, which is essentially undemocratic', warned Bhimrao Ambedkar, the principal architect of the country's constitution, a year into independence. The social order - the soil on which India's new democratic edifice was then being erected - was marked by social hierarchies and economic vulnerabilities. Decades of socio-economic changes since then would transform this old order, albeit unevenly across Indian states, to decisively shape the development of democracy in the country. Why Democracy Deepens relates how these socio-economic changes have deepened democracy in India beyond its topsoil. Drawing on his research in villages and states, Anoop Sadanandan explains how socio-economic changes have heightened the need for local voter information, and have promoted grassroots democracy in some Indian states. By exploring the pivotal political developments in the world's largest democracy, the book puts forward a theory of local democratization\"--Back cover.

Since the early 1990s, the achievement of 'good governance' has been a dominant discourse in the pursuit of social and economic development. This book presents a critical challenge to the contemporary development paradigm of good governance. Based on original ethnographic fieldwork on urban water governance reforms in south India (Karnataka), the book examines the two propositions that underlie the current good governance debate. The first refers to a claim that good governance is both democratic and pro-market. The second to the claim that commercially-oriented water services, whether private or public, are good for poor and marginalised citizens. The book analyses these propositions as they intersect on three levels: policy, practice (process) and outcome. It argues that a number of tensions and contradictions exist within and between what the discourse promises, the everyday practises of how good governance policies are implemented and in the outcomes of such. It reveals the networks of power and the complexity of local reforms and their relation to global discourses as well as the motivations and every day practises of those who currently possess the power to reform. The book is of interest to academics in the fields of Development Studies, Asian Studies and Comparative Politics.

Offering new insights into the political economy of contemporary India, this book considers how and why unequal patterns of economic growth have taken shape within the context of a democratic and decentralising political system, and how this has impacted upon the processes of economic development.