Local Democracy and Good Governance : Five Decades of Panchayati Raj

Contents: Preface. I. The Theme Papers: 1. Democratic Decentralization and good governance: Retrospect and prospect/Urvashi Gulati. 2. Democratic decentralization and good governance: The theoretical perspective/Ramashray Roy. 3. The dialectics of democratic decentralization and good governance/Aswini. K. Ray. 4. The conceptual and substantive issues of democratic decentralization/Partha Nath Mukherji. 5. Democratic decentralization and good governance: The challenge before the social scientists. I. The Special Papers: 6. Democratic decentralization: The deficit of politics/K.B. Saxena. 7. Good governance or self-governance? Prospects of economic revitalization of panchayats in post 1991 LPG India/P.C. Mathur. 8. Grassroots governance in tribal area of Chhattisgarh/K. Gopal Iyer. 9. Empowerment of Panchayati Raj Institutions/Sahib Singh Bhayana. 10. Local governance and equity in public service delivery/Sushma Yadav. 11. A Study of the Gram Panchayats in Haryana/A.S. Malik and Sahib Singh. 12. Democratic Decentralization and Good Governance: The Need for Realistic Empowerment of Panchayats/V. Eshwar Anand. 13. Democratic Decentralization and Good Governance in India: Promises and Perils/D. Sundar Ram. 14. Impact of Globalization on good Governance and the Need for democratic Decentralization/Prem R. Bharadwaj. 15. Democratic Decentralization, Good Governance and Human Governance: A Conceptual Analysis/Vijay Kumar Malhotra. 16. The RTI and Good Governance at Local Level/Mohinder Singh. III. The Conceptual and Operational Dimensions: 17. The Concept of Democratic Decentralization/S. Bhatnagar. 18. The Evolution of Concept of Panchayati Raj: From Democratic Decentralization to Good Governance/Saroj Malik and Shamim Qureshi. 19. S.K. Dey’s Paradigm of Democratic Decentralisation/Ranbir Singh and B.K. Kaushik. 20. The Paradox of Political Decentralization and Economic Centralization/Sunita Dhaka and Yogmaya. 21. Decentralization and Good Governance: some Issues and Challenges at the Third tier of Governance/O.P. Bohra. 22. Some Steps for Good Governance through Democratic Decentralization/Chitali Pal and Anupama Arya. IV. Experiences of Democratic Decentralization in States: 23. Structure and Working of Panchayati Raj in Kerala/P.P. Balan. 24. Working of Panchayat Raj Institutions at Grassroots Level: Experiences form the State of Madhya Pradesh/Yatindra Singh Sisodia.  25. Punjab’s Economy and Panchayati Raj Institutions: An analysis/Kesar Singh and Paramvir Singh. 26. Major Trends in the Panchayati Raj System of Himachal Pradesh/Mridula Sharda. 27. Structural and Functional Dimensions of Panchayati Raj in Haryana/Vimlesh Rathore and Pramod Chand. V. Democratic Decentralization and Women Empowerment: 28. Genesis and Development of Women Empowerment in India/Jagroop Kaur. 29. Women Empowerment, the National Perspective/S.K. Singh. 30. Women Empowerment in the Panchayati Raj Institutions of Uttarakhand after the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act/Neha Kirti Prasad and M. Padalia. 31. Empowerment of Women in the PRIs of Haryana/Rekha Chaudhary. Index.

The term local democracy has been used in this study for the Panchayati Raj Institutions which have assumed enhanced salience after the enactment of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment (1992). The processes of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization initiated, as a result of adoption of the New Economic Policy in 1991 in India have added to their importance. This study is a modest attempt to evaluate the working of Panchayati Raj Institutions, since their inception in 1959, during the five decades. (Jacket)