1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910585963403321

Autore

Sanyal Paromita

Titolo

Oral democracy : deliberation in Indian village assemblies / / Paromita Sanyal, Vijayendra Rao [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2019

ISBN

1-108-57722-9

1-108-65070-8

1-139-09571-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xi, 215 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Theories of institutional design

Disciplina

320.8/40954

Soggetti

Gram sabha - India

Direct democracy - India

Discourse analysis - Political aspects

India Politics and government 21st century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 04 Jan 2019).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Discursive political culture -- Political construction, state enactments, and citizen performances -- The role of literacy in deliberative democracy -- Conclusion : oral democracy.

Sommario/riassunto

Oral Democracy studies citizens' voices in civic and political deliberations in India's gram sabhas (village assemblies), the largest deliberative institution in human history. It analyses nearly three hundred transcripts of gram sabhas, sampled within the framework of a natural experiment, allowing the authors to study how state policy affects the quality of discourse, citizens' discursive performances and state enactments embodied by elected leaders and public officials. By drawing out the varieties of speech apparent in citizen and state interactions, their analysis shows that citizens' oral participation in development and governance can be improved by strengthening deliberative spaces through policy. Even in conditions of high inequality and illiteracy, gram sabhas can create discursive equality by developing the 'oral competence' of citizens and establishing a space in which they can articulate their interests. The authors develop the concept of 'oral democracy' to aid the understanding of deliberative systems in non-



Western and developing countries. This title is also available as Open Access.