Panchayati Raj in West Bengal has endured. Panchayats there are party based and being the majority party, CPI(M)’s policies and principles bear maximum influence on their workings. In this book an attempt has been made to study them with particular focus on the interface between two apparently contradictory processes of democratic decentralisation—the avowed goal that Panchayats seek to achieve—and democratic centralism—the organising principle of CPI(M).
