Prashant Sharma, Democracy and Transparency in the Indian State: The Making of the Right of Information Act.
(Routledge/Edinburgh South Asian Studies Series, 2015)
About the book
The national Right to Information (RTI) Act, enacted in 2005, has been regarded as an important development for Indian democracy. What began as a grassroots movement enacted an outcome that fundamentally alters the relationship between state and citizens.
This book delves into the underlying factors of this event to suggest that they may be more complex than have previously been imagined.
It discusses how the leadership of the movement possessed the resources and access to power to push the movement forward. It shows how select demographics that provided critical support to the demand for an RTI Act had switched allegiance to the private sector. It also investigates the impact of other freedom of information acts that have been enacted across the world over the last two decades.
Using the RTI Act, the book demonstrates that while advancements in procedural democracy in India over the last six decades are encouraging, existing social and political structures may limit future opportunities for democratic development.
It will be of interest to those working in the fields of South Asian Law, Asian Politics, and Civil Society.
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About the author
Prashant Sharma obtained his PhD from the Department of International Development. He is a Visiting Fellow at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) in Geneva and is associated with the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP), University of Lausanne. Dr Sharma is currently working on an independent project in Geneva as a Global Fellow of the Open Society Foundations, researching the accountability question related to PPPs with a focus on social infrastructure in the BRICS countries.
View Dr Sharma's Open Society profile page.|