INDIAN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS, Third Edition


Book Description

After years of subjugation by the British colonial rulers, India attained a status of Independent State on 15 August 1947, a day to be reckoned with pride by all Indians. Struggling for her Independence, facing the trauma of partition, and finally establishing a sovereign democratic status for itself, the journey has undoubtedly been a roller coaster ride for India. This book comprehensively outlines the evolution of the Indian Politics, discussing all the constraints, challenges and shortcomings faced by Indian Polity till date. The book shows how State-Society interface, with special emphasis on civil society activities, can play an integral role in shaping the political fate of the country. In addition, this book not only presents the institutional aspects of Indian politics by underlying in details, the provisions of the Constitution, but also brings out the real working of the institutional framework in an ever-changing social and political environment. Organized into 23 chapters, the book discusses, in detail, the Constitutional development, The Preamble, The Fundamental Rights, The Directive Principles of State Policy, The Executive, The Legislature and The Judiciary at national and state levels followed by their critical appraisals as well as the Centre-State relation with its continuing tensions. To give a clear and panoramic view of Indian Political Scenario the book also focuses on local-self governments, national and regional parties in India, challenges to Indian political system and new social movements. THIRD EDITION HALLMARK • Thorough updation with contemporary events in Indian political scenario. • Coverage of General elections to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha. • Political Developments of recent times. Intended as a textbook for the undergraduate and postgraduate students of Political Science and Law, this book is also useful for the aspirants for Civil Service and competitive examinations like NET and SLET. KEY FEATURES • Gives a wide coverage of conventional topics pertaining to the Constitution of India, relating them to the working of the Indian polity in the real world. • Tackles issues related to new social movements in India encompassing environmental movements, women's movements, human rights movements and anti-corruption movement. • Highlights the continuing challenges to the Indian Political System from different social and cultural factors, like religion, language, caste, tribe, regionalism and also corruption and criminalization of politics. • Deals with current developments in administrative policies.







The Third Way


Book Description

The idea of finding a 'third way' in politics has been widely discussed over recent months - not only in the UK, but in the US, Continental Europe and Latin America. But what is the third way? Supporters of the notion haven't been able to agree, and critics deny the possibility altogether. Anthony Giddens shows that developing a third way is not only a possibility but a necessity in modern politics.




INDIAN POLITICS


Book Description

Designed as a standard text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Political Science and also for the aspirants of Civil Services Examinations, the third edition of the book provides a thoroughly updated account of Indian politics, taking into consideration the Indian constitutional foundations and functioning of the various democratic institutions. It gives a holistic view of the political system of India that includes the State, Government (both central and state governments), the market, and the civil society, including infrastructures like the party systems in the nation and the states that are partly in the civil society and partly in the state. NEW TO THIS EDITION • All new developments in the working of the institutions of the various organs of the governments at the Union, State, and local levels in their internal as well as interactional settings. • Perspective of governance that demands attention to relationships among the governments, the civil society, and the market which have acquired a new salience since the parameter-altering economic reforms in 1991 but have suffered some reverses since 2008, a phenomenon known as slowbalization or deglobalization. • New phase in Indian politics with Narendra Modi government at the centre since 2014. TARGET AUDIENCE • B.A. (Political Science) • M.A. (Political Science) • Aspirants of Civil Services Examinations




Indian Political System


Book Description

This volume examines the distinct structural characteristics of Indian politics and unearths significant sociopolitical and economic processes which are critical to the political articulation of governance in the country. It reflects on the foundational values of Indian polity, the emergence of the nation post-colonialism, the structural fluidity of federalism in India, and the changing nature of the planning process in the country. The book also studies the electoral processes, social movements, party system, local and state governance. Apart from analyzing corruption and public grievance systems, the volume also probes into significant issues in Indian politics. This book will be useful to the students, researchers and faculty working in the field of political science, public administration, political sociology, political economy and post-colonial contemporary Indian politics in particular. It will also be an invaluable and interesting reading for those interested in South Asian studies.




When Crime Pays


Book Description

The first thorough study of the co-existence of crime and democratic processes in Indian politics In India, the world's largest democracy, the symbiotic relationship between crime and politics raises complex questions. For instance, how can free and fair democratic processes exist alongside rampant criminality? Why do political parties recruit candidates with reputations for wrongdoing? Why are one-third of state and national legislators elected--and often re-elected--in spite of criminal charges pending against them? In this eye-opening study, political scientist Milan Vaishnav mines a rich array of sources, including fieldwork on political campaigns and interviews with candidates, party workers, and voters, large surveys, and an original database on politicians' backgrounds to offer the first comprehensive study of an issue that has implications for the study of democracy both within and beyond India's borders.




The First Political Order


Book Description

Global history records an astonishing variety of forms of social organization. Yet almost universally, males subordinate females. How does the relationship between men and women shape the wider political order? The First Political Order is a groundbreaking demonstration that the persistent and systematic subordination of women underlies all other institutions, with wide-ranging implications for global security and development. Incorporating research findings spanning a variety of social science disciplines and comprehensive empirical data detailing the status of women around the globe, the book shows that female subordination functions almost as a curse upon nations. A society’s choice to subjugate women has significant negative consequences: worse governance, worse conflict, worse stability, worse economic performance, worse food security, worse health, worse demographic problems, worse environmental protection, and worse social progress. Yet despite the pervasive power of social and political structures that subordinate women, history—and the data—reveal possibilities for progress. The First Political Order shows that when steps are taken to reduce the hold of inequitable laws, customs, and practices, outcomes for all improve. It offers a new paradigm for understanding insecurity, instability, autocracy, and violence, explaining what the international community can do now to promote more equitable relations between men and women and, thereby, security and peace. With comprehensive empirical evidence of the wide-ranging harm of subjugating women, it is an important book for security scholars, social scientists, policy makers, historians, and advocates for women worldwide.




Terrorism Versus Democracy


Book Description

Examines global terrorist networks and discusses the long-term future of terrorism.




The Third Pillar


Book Description

Revised and updated Shortlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award From one of the most important economic thinkers of our time, a brilliant and far-seeing analysis of the current populist backlash against globalization. Raghuram Rajan, distinguished University of Chicago professor, former IMF chief economist, head of India's central bank, and author of the 2010 FT-Goldman-Sachs Book of the Year Fault Lines, has an unparalleled vantage point onto the social and economic consequences of globalization and their ultimate effect on our politics. In The Third Pillar he offers up a magnificent big-picture framework for understanding how these three forces--the state, markets, and our communities--interact, why things begin to break down, and how we can find our way back to a more secure and stable plane. The "third pillar" of the title is the community we live in. Economists all too often understand their field as the relationship between markets and the state, and they leave squishy social issues for other people. That's not just myopic, Rajan argues; it's dangerous. All economics is actually socioeconomics - all markets are embedded in a web of human relations, values and norms. As he shows, throughout history, technological phase shifts have ripped the market out of those old webs and led to violent backlashes, and to what we now call populism. Eventually, a new equilibrium is reached, but it can be ugly and messy, especially if done wrong. Right now, we're doing it wrong. As markets scale up, the state scales up with it, concentrating economic and political power in flourishing central hubs and leaving the periphery to decompose, figuratively and even literally. Instead, Rajan offers a way to rethink the relationship between the market and civil society and argues for a return to strengthening and empowering local communities as an antidote to growing despair and unrest. Rajan is not a doctrinaire conservative, so his ultimate argument that decision-making has to be devolved to the grass roots or our democracy will continue to wither, is sure to be provocative. But even setting aside its solutions, The Third Pillar is a masterpiece of explication, a book that will be a classic of its kind for its offering of a wise, authoritative and humane explanation of the forces that have wrought such a sea change in our lives.




Reproductive Politics and the Making of Modern India


Book Description

Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295748856 Beginning in the late nineteenth century, India played a pivotal role in global conversations about population and reproduction. In Reproductive Politics and the Making of Modern India, Mytheli Sreenivas demonstrates how colonial administrators, postcolonial development experts, nationalists, eugenicists, feminists, and family planners all aimed to reform reproduction to transform both individual bodies and the body politic. Across the political spectrum, people insisted that regulating reproduction was necessary and that limiting the population was essential to economic development. This book investigates the often devastating implications of this logic, which demonized some women’s reproduction as the cause of national and planetary catastrophe. To tell this story, Sreenivas explores debates about marriage, family, and contraception. She also demonstrates how concerns about reproduction surfaced within a range of political questions—about poverty and crises of subsistence, migration and claims of national sovereignty, normative heterosexuality and drives for economic development. Locating India at the center of transnational historical change, this book suggests that Indian developments produced the very grounds over which reproduction was called into question in the modern world. The open-access edition of Reproductive Politics and the Making of Modern India is freely available thanks to the TOME initiative and the generous support of The Ohio State University Libraries.