Can Deliberative Democracy Work in Urban India?

Abstract

India faces extensive challenges of rapid urbanization and deficits in human well-being and environmental sustainability. Democratic governance is expected to strengthen public policies and efforts towards sustainability. This article presents a study in Pune, India, which aimed at exploring perceptions about public participation in urban governance and the potential of high-quality public deliberation to meet deficits. The research reveals disaffection of the public with government decision-making and government-led participation. Further, it shows that people are interested in participating in community life and seek to be partners in civic decision-making, but find themselves unable to do so. The study illustrates that high-quality public deliberations facilitated by an independent third party can provide a satisfactory space of participation, learning, and developing balanced outcomes. Citizens expressed readiness for partnership, third-party facilitation, and support from civic advocacy groups. Challenges with regard to government commitment to deliberative democracy will need to be overcome for a purposeful shift from conventional weak to empowered participation of ordinary citizens in civic decision-making. We anticipate that while institutionalization of high-quality public deliberations may take time, civil society-led public deliberations may help raise community expectations and demand for induced deliberative democracy.

Detailed Critical Analysis of Administration and Management of the Government of Uttar Pradesh Under the Leadership of Yogi Aditya Nath 2017 to 2021: A Quantitative Study of Expert's Opinion

“…Additionally, during the snapshots of public and nearby strain, and the obligation of tana bana and Bhai among Muslims and Hindus cooperating in the business of silk sarees find it supported the account of harmony talk or Shanti in Varanasi and the essential everyday factors of the conjunction of Hindus and Muslims. Be that as it may, the well-known history of harmony consistently may propagate the primary imbalances and the Muslim periphery and impede the more current and progressing workers required for recreating the harmony consistently (Menon, Hartz-Karp, Marinova, 2021).…”