Yojana Magazine: Issue July 2014

It is a well-worn cliché that ‘People get the leaders they deserve’. It perhaps hides and distorts as much as it reveals the real processes at work in a democracy. After all the closely intermeshed network of agencies and institutions through which democracy is actualised may appear like an enigmatic labyrinth with too many closed doors. The electoral process, in a way, if we may paraphrase Foucault, ‘makes windows where there were once walls’. While other institutions of democracy may be difficult to penetrate and change for the common people, the key to its pinnacle in the form of electoral process remains in the hands of masses. Herein lies the importance of the electoral process for democracy. Digging through the ruins of many a failed democracies and exploring the success of many others, it becomes obvious that the nitty-gritty of the electoral process could write the epitaph of democracy or infuse it with energy and vitality. Just like currency in the economy, a political system is as valuable as people think it to be.

Read More..

Courtesy: Yojana Magazine