Future of Parliamentary Democracy in India
Contents: List of contributors. Acknowledgements. Introduction. I. Complex dimensions of parliamentary democracy in India: 1. Limits to parliamentary democracy: myth or reality?/G. Gopa Kumar. 2. Parliamentary democracy in India: reflections and challenges/Nalini Kant Jha. 3. Need for parliamentary procedure reform in India/R.L.M. Patil. 4. The future of parliamentary democracy in India/T. Krishna Kanth and K. Lalitha Kumari. 5. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar\'s reflections on parliamentary democracy/D. Jeevan Kumar. 6. India\'s secular democracy at risk: the challenge of communalism/M.A. Hussain. II. Globalisation and challenges to Indian democracy: 7. Interfacing globalization and Indian democracy: myths, discourses and reworking/Muzaffar Assadi. 8. Globalization, democracy and development in India: the role of civil society/J. Mary John and B. Mohanan. 9. Biodiversity, traditional knowledge and farmers\' right in the context of globalization/Shaji Varkey. III. Electoral reform, gender issues and participation: 10. Electoral reforms in India: need for inner-party democracy/J. Prabhash. 11. Systems of representation and Indian democracy/T.M. Joseph. 12. Criminalisation of politics and the ominous trends in Indian democracy/K.M. Sajad Ibrahim. 13. Elections: Bihari style/Ajit Joy. 14. Participation of women in parliamentary democracy/K.C. Sunny. 15. Politics of gender, participation and development in India/R. Sreekantam Nair. 16. Constitutional balancing: reengineering legislative, executive and judicial relations/A. Basheer. IV. Coalition politics, party system and issues in federalism: 17. Coalition politics and parliamentary democracy in India/E. Sudhakar. 18. Coalition politics, party system and the dynamics of parliamentary democracy/K. Raman Pillai. 19. Divergent party system, federal politics and coalition arrangement in India/G. Gopa Kumar. 20. Parliamentary democracy and coalition governments: negotiating spaces/Sandeep Shastri.
"While India celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of independence and trust with liberal democracy, the country is actually passing through a tough and complex period. The rigid social and hierarchical structure, unfinished agenda of land reforms, challenges of casteism and communalism, Criminalisation of politics, problems of gender participation, slow pace of electoral reforms, challenges of federalism, coalition politics and party system, rise of terrorism etc are some of the major issues affecting the future course of parliamentary democracy in India. In fact, the debate cannot be narrowly focused to the structural and legal aspects of parliamentary form of government. In the meanwhile, India embraced the neo-liberal agenda and entered the stream of globalization process. This raises further questions of interfacing a developing democracy with the challenges of globalization. The problems relating to bio-diversity, traditional knowledge, rights of poor farmers and above all the role of civil society are crucial here. The volume presents the problems and potentialities of Indian democracy in the era of globalization and liberalization." (jacket)
