Democracy Politics and Social Change in India
Contents: Preface. 1. Concept of social democracy. 2. Democracy in ancient India. 3. World publics say Governments should be more responsive to the will of the people. 4. Democracy: a social power analysis. 5. Organised riots and structured violence in India. 6. Understanding Indian insurgencies. 7. Globalisation, social democracy and cosmopolitan politics. 8. The stability of multi-party democracy in India. 9. Deliberative democracy in divided societies. 10. Democracy and social policy development. 11. Good governance and management of social conflicts. 12. Democracy and development : contradiction in terms. 13. Democracy, politics, autocracy in India. 14. Democracy in Urban India. Bibliography. Index.
"Social democracy should also be seen as the most successful ideology and movement of the twentieth century its principles and policies undergirded the most prosperous and harmonious period in European history by reconciling things that had hitherto seemed incompatible a well functioning capitalist system, democracy and social stability. Understanding social democracy\'s original rationale and gaining a renewed appreciation for its role in twentieth century political development is reason enough to reconsider the movement\'s history. It turns out, however, that there are other pressing reasons to do so as well, since many of the hard-earned insights of earlier ideological battles have been forgotten in recent years, as a shallow version of neoliberalism has come to exert an almost Gramscian hegemony over mainstream public debate.
To the charge that this smacks of coerced conformity, social democrats must respond that, with the theme of community once again becoming the provenance of the populist right (as has already begun to happen with groups ranging from the French National Front to the Austrain Freedom Party), the alternative is far worse. As the founders of the social democratic movement understood, people have a deep-seated and ineradicable psychological need to feel part of a larger community a need that the expanding reach of markets only intensifies as all that is a solid melts into air. That need will be met one way or another, and if the democratic left cannot figure out how to do so, less savory forces will be more than glad to step into the breach.
The social power analysis described in this essay provides solid, objective, social-scientific definitions of these badly-mauled terms-definitions against which to measure the propaganda of groups from the National association of manufactures to the Communist Party. The most important function of a new social theory is to provide a rationale and intellectual and moral sanction to what people are already doing -or what they want to do yet don\'t quite know how because it is at variance with traditional theories and institutions. This social power analysis is intended to serve that purpose for people who are concerned about the concentration and irresponsibility of power in our society. They will find it provides a framework of ideas within which they can create solutions consistent with democratic institutions and ideals." (jacket)
