Contemporary Discourses on Democracy

While democracy is conventionally understood as political institution, the contemporary discourses on democracy are concentrated on the social tributaries of democracy namely the groups and associations, discursive public sphere, social capital, civil society etc. All these form the core of good governance. This book is an attempt to make critical reflections on the various tributaries of democracy. The first chapter explains democracy both as a doctrine of individualism and as a doctrine of collective consciousness and makes critical assessments of the current debates on associationism and deliberative democracy. The second & third chapters make critical assessments of social capital and civil society respectively. The fourth and fifth chapters deal with decentralized governance and tribal self-rule. All these themes are examined in the context of structural adjustment policy. While these concepts are by and large policy constructs of the structural adjustment programme serious discourses are taking place at the level of pedagogy on the spontaneity and independent nature of the concepts. This book raises critical discourses on democracy in the light of globalisation and structural adjustment.