In 1992, the 73rd Amendment to the Indian Constitution created 250,000 village democracies (called Gram Panchayats) covering 800 million citizens. It mandated regular elections, deliberative spaces, and political reservations for women and disadvantaged castes. The unprecedented variation in democratic experience that emerged from this has resulted in a large body of research that provides insights into the intersection between democracy, governance, and development. This paper reviews this literature, showing that India’s democratic trajectory has been shaped by four broad forces: a 3,000 year tradition of debate and deliberation, colonial policies, the contrasting ideologies of central players in the formation of modern India—Gandhi and Ambedkar—and the 73rd Amendment. The paper distills key findings from the empirical literature on the effectiveness of local politicians and bureaucrats, political reservations, public finance, deliberative democracy, and service delivery. It concludes with a set of policy recommendations for improving the functioning of the Panchayats in India, emphasizing the need for greater devolution and improved local fiscal capacity. It also argues that urban governments in India would benefit from learning from the experience of Gram Panchayats.
Authors
- Citation
- “ George, Siddharth ; Rao, Vijayendra ; Sharan, M. R. . 2024 . Two Hundred and Fifty-Thousand Democracies: A Review of Village Government in India . Policy Research Working Paper; 10793 . © Washington, DC: World Bank . http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41662 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO . ”
- Collection(s)
- Policy Research Working Papers
- DOI
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-10793
- Identifier externaldocumentum
- 34333958
- Identifier internaldocumentum
- 34333958
- Published in
- United States of America
- Region country
- India
- RelationisPartofseries
- Policy Research Working Paper; 10793
- Report
- WPS10793
- Rights
- CC BY 3.0 IGO
- Rights Holder
- World Bank
- Rights URI
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/
- UNIT
- DECRG: Poverty & Inequality (DECPI)
- URI
- https://hdl.handle.net/10986/41662
- date disclosure
- 2024-06-05
- region administrative
- South Asia
Files
Table of Contents
- Introduction 4
- Pre-1947 9
- Ancient and Medieval India 9
- British India 11
- Gandhi and Panchayats 13
- Post-Independence (1947) 14
- Constituent Assembly Debates 14
- From 1950 - 1993 15
- 1992 and Beyond 17
- Functionaries and Institutional Norms 18
- Reservations 22
- Panchayat Finances and Taxes 25
- Deliberation and Participation 29
- Last Mile Agents 33
- How Much to Decentralize? 34
- Panchayati Raj and Local Democracy: The Way Forward 36