Editorial

Abstract

The issues of inequality and inclusive growth, poverty and privations, service delivery, political and administrative leadership, etc. are central to the discourses of development and democracy in contemporary India and the world. In the earlier social science literature, political scientists largely focused on democracy and economists on development (read economic development). As a firm believer in the value and creative potential of inter-and multi-disciplinary research, I find it disappointing that after a notable and promising attempt in bringing political and economic sciences closer in an interdisciplinary cross-fertilisation by Anthony Downs (1957), there is still not much progress in this direction. In fact, this promising field has been devastatingly blighted by the triumph of neoliberalism as the dominant ideology in the post-Cold War globalising capitalist world.Though these crucial social science disciplines still exist in splendid isolation, by and large, it is heartening to flag a new significant work in Robinson and White (1999) on what they call 'democratic developmental state'. This book challenges the widening consensus over the last two decades that the development in the late developing societies and poor economies is better achieved by authoritarian rather than democratic regimes. They postulate a mutually sustaining relationship between democracy and development. (See an article on Democratic Developmental State in India by Niraj Kumar [2016].)It is a great advance from the myopic concept of 'developmental state' à la