Engaging with civil society: the democratic perspective
Neera Chandhoke
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Abstract
At the turn of the twenty first century, in India, civil society organisations came together in a number of campaigns, each of which had a very specific focus: assuring the provision of social goods to the citizens of India. India is considered to be the world's largest democracy. India is also projected to occupy the slot of a major power in the not so distant future. It is estimated that the growth rate of 8 to 9 percent of the GDP will quickly outstrip the growth rate of the other projected major power, China. Yet poverty, disease, malnutrition, illiteracy, and homelessness continue to stalk the lives of millions of citizens . It is this particular contradiction that has been fore-grounded by civil society campaigns since the late 1990s. This paper charts out the course of five such campaigns. It also analyses the implications of contemporary forms of civil society activism for democracy.
About the author
Neera Chandhoke holds a professorship in the department of political science, University of Delhi. She teaches political theory and comparative politics, and has written and published widely on civil society, secularism, democracy, affirmative action, representation, social and economic rights, and on freedom from poverty as a human right. She is the author of State and Civil Society: Explorations in Political Theory Delhi, Sage, 1995, Beyond Secularism: The Rights of Religious Minorities Delhi, OUP, 1999, and The Conceits of Civil Society Delhi, OUP, 2003. Neera is an international visiting fellow with the ESRC Non-Governmental Public Action programme located in CCS.