Pressure Groups and Democratic Governance—An Indian Perspective
| Author | Jayaprakash Narayan |
| Published date | 01 July 2015 |
| Date | 01 July 2015 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0019556120150306 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
PRESSURE GROUPS AND DEMOCRATIC
GOVERNANCE-AN
INDIAN PERSPECTIVE
JAYAPRAKASH
NARAYAN
Interests groups pursuing the causes they believe in
and
persuading the political parties, governments and legislatures
during and between elections are an integral
part
of
vibrant
democratic process. The author draws
and
evaluates a sharp
contrast between two fundamental approaches
of
pressure
groups persuading larger causes
of
public interest. One being
the usage
of
hartals,
bandhs,
rasta rokos, obstructionism
and
indefinite fasts as coercisive weapons in pressurising
governments
or
legislatures to concede their demands
and
the
second is quiet, systematic and consistent persuasion
of
elected
governments
and
legislatures
and
non-obstructive forms
of
dissent to bring institutional reforms. While establishing that
the increasing erosion
of
legitimacy
of
the political process
has propelled the adoption
of
the first approach, which made
India ungovernable
and
chaotic, the author sets out nine vital
conditions to be fUlfilled
in
order
for
a democracy to mature
and various interest groups to play a constructive, positive role
in deepening democracy
and
enhancing our liberties.
IT IS axiomatic that nations which have in their official titles the words
'democratic', or
'people's'
are almost always autocratic and undemocratic.
In order to understand the role
of
pressure groups and its limitations in a
democracy, it will be useful to review the criteria for describing a nation-
state as a modern political democracy.
Myron Weiner1 listed four criteria for classifying a state as a functioning
democracy. They may be paraphrased as:
(i) Competitive elections;
(ii) Political freedoms;
(iii)
Winners do not punish losers merely because they lost an election;
and
(iv) The elected government exercises real power,
n~t
a
-~~terie
or
junta.
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