ncert class 10 political science

7/26/2019 NCERT Class 10 Political Science

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103

Each of these cartoons represents a challenge to democracy. Please describe what that challenge is. Also place itin one of the three categories mentioned in the first section.

Mubarak Re-elected Seeing the democracy

Liberal Gender Equality Campaign Money

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Ca se an d co nt e xt You r d escr ip tio n o f t h e ch all en ge s f or d em o cr acy in t h atsituation

Chile: General Pinochets [ Example] Establishing civilian control over all governmentalgovernment defeated, but institutions, holding the first multi- party elections, recalling allmi l ita ry st i l l in cont ro l of pol it i ca l leaders from exi le .many institut ions

Poland: After the firstsuccess of Solidarity, t hegovernment imposedmart ial law and bannedsolidarity

Ghana: Just att ainedindependence, Nkrum ahelected president

Myanmar: Suu Kyi underhouse arrest for m ore than15 years, arm y rulersgetting global acceptance

I nternationalorganisations:US as th e only superpower disregards the UNand takes unilateral action

Mexico: Second f reeelection after the defeatof PRI in 20 00; defeatedcandidate alleges rigging

China: Communist Partyadopts economic reform sbut m aintains monopolyover political power

Pakistan: GeneralMusharraf holdsreferendum, allegationsof fraud in voters list

I raq: Widespread

sectarian violence as thenew government fails toestablish its authorit y

South Africa: Mandelaretires from active politics,pressure on his successorMbeki to w ithdraw someconcessions given toWhite minority


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US, Guantanam o Bay:

UN Secretar y Generalcalls this a v iolation ofinternat ional law,US refused t o respond

Saudi Arabia: Women n otallowed to t ake part inpublic activities,no freedom of r eligion forminorities

Yugoslavia: Ethnictension between Serbs

and Albanians on t he risein t he province of Kosovo.Yugoslavia disintergrated

Belgium: One round ofconstitutional changetaken place, but the Dutchspeakers not satisfied;they want more autonomy

Sri Lank a: The peace talk sbetween the governmentand the LTTE break

down, r enewed violenceUS, Civil Rights: Blackshave won equal rights, butare still poor, lesseducated and marginalised

Northern I reland: Thecivil war has ended butCatholics and Protestantsyet to develop trust

Nepal: ConstituentAssembly about to be

elected, unrest inTerai areas, Maoists havenot surrendered arm s

Bolivia: Morales, asupporter of water struggle,becomes Prime Minister,MNCs thr eaten t o leavethe country

Ca se an d co nt e xt You r d escr ip tio n o f t he ch alle ng es f or d em o cr acy i n t h atsituation


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Now that you have noted down all these challenges, let us group these together into some broad categories.Given below are some spheres or sites of democratic politics. You may place against each of these the specificchallenges that you noted for one or more countries or cartoons in the previous section. In addition to that writeone item for India for each of these spheres. In case you find that some challenges do not fit into any of thecategories given below, you can create new categories and put some items under that.

Constitutionaldesign

Democraticrights

Working ofinstitutions

Elections

Federalism,decentralisation

Accommodationof diversity

Politicalorganisations

Any other category

Any other category


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Let us group these again, this time by the nature of these challenges as per the classification suggested in the firstsection. For each of these categories, find at least one example from India as well.

Foundationalchallenge

Challenge ofexpansion

Challenge ofdeepening

Now let us think only about India. Think of all the challenges that democracy faces in contemporary India. Listthose five that should be addressed first of all. The listing should be in order of priority, i.e, the challenge youfind most important or pressing should be mentioned at number 1, and so on. Give one example of thatchallenge and your reasons for assigning it the priority.

Priority Challenges t o Example Reasons for preferencedemocracy

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.


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Each of these challenges is linked to the possibility of reforms. As mentioned above, we discusschallenges only because we think these can beovercome. Generally all the suggestions or proposalsabout overcoming various challenges to democracy are called democracy reform or political reform.

We are not going to give here a list of desirablepolitical reforms, for there cannot be any such list. If all the countries do not have the same challenges, itfollows that everyone cannot follow the same recipeof political reforms. We cannot prescribe a procedurefor car repair without knowing which model the car

is, what the defect is and what tools are available, where the car has broken down, etc.

Can we at least have a list of such reforms for ourcountry in todays context? We can develop someproposals for reforms at the national level. But thereal challenge of reforms may not lie at the nationallevel. Some of the crucial questions need to be thoughtat the State or local level. Besides, such a list may become irrelevant after some time. So, instead of thatlet us think of some broad guidelines that can be keptin mind while devising ways and means for political

reforms in India: It is very tempting to think of legal ways of ref orming politics, to think of new laws to banundesirable things. But this temptation needs to beresisted. No doubt, law has an important role to play in political reform. Carefully devised changes in law can help to discourage wrong political practices andencourage good ones. But legal-constitutional changesby themselves cannot overcome challenges todemocracy. This is like the rules of cricket. A changein rules for LBW decisions helped to reduce negativebatting tactics. But no one would ever think that thequality of cricket could be improved mainly throughchanges in the rules. This is to be done mainly by theplayers, coaches and administrators. Similarly,democratic reforms are to be carried out mainly by

political activists, parties, movements and politically conscious citizens.

Any legal change must carefully look at what resultsit will ha ve on politics. Sometimes the results may becounter-productive. For example, many states havebanned people who have more than two childrenfrom contesting panchayat elections. This has resultedin denial of democratic opportunity to many poorand women, which was not intended. Generally, lawsthat seek to ban something are not very successful inpolitics. Laws that give political actors incentives to dogood things have more chances of working. The best

laws are those which empower people to carry outdemocratic reforms. The Right to Information Act isa good example of a law that empowers the peopleto find out what is happening in government and actas watchdogs of democracy. Such a law helps tocontrol corruption and supplements the existing lawsthat banned corruption and imposed strict penalties.

Democratic reforms are to be brought aboutprincipally through political practice. Therefore, themain focus of political reforms should be on ways to

strengthen democratic practice. As we discussed in thechapter on political parties, the most important concernshould be to increase and improve the quality of political participation by ordinary citizens.

Any proposal for political reforms should think notonly about what is a good solution but also about who

will implement it and how. It is not very wise to think that the legislatures will pass legislations that go againstthe interest of all the political parties and MPs. Butmeasures that rely on democratic movements, citizensorganisations and the media are likely to succeed.

Let us keep these general guidelines in mind andlook at some specific instances of challenges todemocracy that require some measure of reform. Letus try to come up with some concrete proposals of reform.


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Here are some challenges that require political reforms. Discuss these challenges in detail study the reformoptions offered here and give your preferred solution with reasons. Remember that none of the optionsoffered here is right or wrong. You can opt for a mix of more than one options, or come up with something that is not offered here. But you must give your solution in details and offer reasons for your choice.

Doctors absenteeismChallenge:

Uttar Pradesh government got a survey done andfound out that most of the doctors posted in the ruralprimary health centres are simply not there. They livein a town, carry out private practice and visit the village

where they are posted only once or twice in the entiremonth. Villagers have to travel to towns and pay very high fee to private doctors even for common ailments.

Reform proposals: The government should make it compulsory for the doctors to live in the village where they areposted, otherwise their service should be terminated.

District administration and police should carry out surprise raids to check the attendance of thedoctors.

Village panchayat should be given the power to write the annual report of the doctor which shouldbe read out in the gram sabha meeting.

Problems like this can be solved only if UttarPradesh is split into several smaller states which canbe administered more efficiently.

Political fundingChallenge:

On an average, every candidate who contested thelast Lok Sabha elections owned a property of morethan Rs one crore. There is a fear that only wealthy people or those with their support can afford tofight elections. Most of the political parties aredependent on money given by big business houses.

The worry is that the role of money in politics will

reduce whatever little voice the poor have in ourdemocracy.

Reform proposals: The financial accounts of every political party should be made public. These accounts should beexamined by government auditors.

There should be state funding of elections.Parties should be given some money by thegovernment to meet their election expenditure.

Citizens should be encouraged to give more

donations to parties and to political workers.Such donations should be exempt from incometax.

Any other problem of your choice

Challenge:

Reform proposals:


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We began this tour of democracy last year with aminimal definition of democracy. Do you rememberthat? This is what Chapter 2 of your textbook said lastyear: democracy is a form of government in whichthe rulers are elected by the people. We then looked atmany cases and expanded the definition slightly to addsome qualifications: the rulers elected by the people must take all themajor decisions; elections must offer a choice and fair opportunity to the people to change the current rulers; this choice and opportunity should be available toall the people on an equal basis; and the exercise of this choice must lead to agovernment limited by basic rules of the constitutionand citizens rights.

You may have felt disappointed that the definitiondid not refer to any high ideals that we associate withdemocracy. But in operational terms, we deliberately started with a minimalist but clear definition of democracy. It allowed us to make a clear distinctionbetween democratic and non-democratic regimes.

You may have noticed that in the course of ourdiscussions of various aspects of democraticgovernment and politics, we have gone beyond thatdefinition: We discussed democratic rights at length and notedthat these rights are not limited to the right to vote,stand in elections and form political organisations. Wediscussed some social and economic rights that ademocracy should offer to its citizens. We have taken up power sharing as the spirit of

democracy and discussed how power sharing betweengovernments and social groups is necessary ina democracy. We saw how democracy cannot be the brute ruleof majority and how a respect for minority voice isnecessary for democracy.

Our discussion of democracy has gone beyondthe government and its activities. We discussed how eliminating discrimination based on caste, religion andgender is important in a democracy.

Finally, we have had some discussion about someoutcomes that one can expect from a democracy.

In doing so, we have not gone against the definitionof democracy offered last year. We began then with adefinition of what is the minimum a country musthave to be called a democracy. In the course of ourdiscussion we moved to the set of desirable conditionsthat a democracy should have. We have moved from

the definition of democracy to the description of agood democracy.

How do we define a good democracy? What areits features? Which are the features a democracy musthave to be called a good democracy? And what mustnot take place in a democracy if it is a good democracy?

You decide that.

Reading between the Lines

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Here is your space for writing your own definition of good democracy.

(Write your name here) ____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ __ s def in i t ion of good

democracy (not m ore than 50 words) :

Features (use only as many points as you want. Try to compress it in as few points as possible)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

ncert class 10 political science

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