Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-5b777bbd6c-ks5gx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-06-21T08:58:01.586Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - Democracy, decentralisation and access to basic services: an elaboration on Sen's capability approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

By
Santosh Mehrotra
Edited by
Flavio Comim ,
Mozaffar Qizilbash  and
Sabina Alkire
Santosh Mehrotra
Affiliation:
Senior Adviser Planning Commission Government of India
Flavio Comim
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Mozaffar Qizilbash
Affiliation:
University of York
Sabina Alkire
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

Introduction

Sen (2000) suggests that there are three arguments in favour of democratic political freedoms and civil rights: their direct importance for basic capabilities, including that of political and social participation; their instrumental role in enhancing the hearing the people get, including their claim to economic needs; and their constructive role in the conceptualisation of the needs. We suggest that the constructive role can be easily subverted by the conspiracy of silence about issues which are central to transforming the lives of the poor. The instrumental role of enhancing the hearing of people can also be effectively blunted if the hearing merely leads to populist rhetoric, and government spending plans to deliver services relevant to the poor, without actual delivery of quality services. The conceptualisation of their needs is more often carried out by well-intentioned, well-educated bureaucrats, neither fully sharing nor understanding the life experiences of the poor, functioning through vertically operated sectoral line ministries.

Thus, while national democracy offers much potential or scope for articulating the needs of the poor for basic social services, in such an environment the potential for the poor to enhance their capabilites is rarely realised except in a highly distorted manner. However, deep democratic decentralisation creates the basis for participation, the collective voicing of needs and collective action to force the government to deliver services effectively.

Sen recognises that there is a danger of overselling the effectiveness of democracy.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Capability Approach
Concepts, Measures and Applications
 , pp. 385 - 420
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ames, B. (2001), ‘The Politics of Public Spending in Latin America’, American Journal of Political Science, Volume 21, Issue 1 (February, 1977), pp 149–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avritzer, L. (2000), ‘Public Deliberation at the Local Level: Participatory Budgeting in Brazil’, Paper delivered at the Experiments For Deliberative Democracy Conference, Wisconsin, January.
Baiocchi, G. (1999), ‘Participation, Activism, and Politics: The Porto Alegre Experiment and Deliberative Democratic Theory’, Paper, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, baiocchi@ssc.wisc.edu.
Bardhan, P. (1984), The Political Economy of Development in India, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bashir, S. and Ayyar, R. V. (2001), ‘District Primary Education Programme’ in Encyclopaedia of Indian Education, Vol 1, Rajput, J. S. (ed.), National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi.
Brandolini, A. and D'Alessio, G. (1998), ‘Measuring Well-being in the Functioning Space’, Bank of Italy, mimeo.Google Scholar
Chabot, J., Harnmeijer, J. W. and Streetfland, P. H. (eds.) (1995) Africa Primary Health Care in Times of Economic Turbulences, Royal Tropical Institute, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Cornia, G. A. (2000), ‘Inequality and Poverty in the Era of Liberalisation and Globalisation’, UNU Millenium Conference Paper, January.
Santos, Sousa B. (1998), Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre: Toward a Redistributive Democracy, Politics and Society, 26, 4: 461–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drèze, J. (1999), ‘Militarian, Development and Democracy’, Lecture given at the University of Baroda.
Drèze, J. and Sen, A. (eds.) (1989), Hunger and Public Action, Oxford University Press: Oxford.Google Scholar
ECLAC (2000), Social Panorama of Latin America: 1999–2000, Santiago: United Nations Publications.
Esman, M. and Uphoff, N. (1984), Local Organizations: Intermediaries in Rural Development, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Garau, P. (2001), ‘The Changing Context and Directions of Urban Governance’, mimeo.
Goetz, A. M. and Jenkins, R. (1999), ‘Right to Information and Panchayati Raj’ in The Right to Information, Lokayan Bulletin, Contemporary Articles, Vol II, 16.2, September–October, New Delhi.Google Scholar
Gopalakrishnan, R. and Sharma, A. (1999), Education Guarantee Scheme, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal.Google Scholar
Hirschman, A. O. (1970), Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizationa and States, Cambridge, M.A.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Jarrett, S. W. and Ofusu-Amaah, S. (1992), ‘Strengthening Health Services for MCH in Africa: The First Four Years of the Bamako Initiative’, Health Policy and Planning; 7(2): 164–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khan, M. H. (2001), ‘The New Political Economy of Corruption’ in Fine, B., Lapavitsas, C. and Pincus, J. (eds.) in Development Policy in the Twenty-first Century. Beyond the Post-Washington Consensus, London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kingdon, G. G. (1994), An Economic Evaluation of School Management Types in Urban India – A Case Study of Uttar Pradesh, D. Phil. Thesis, University of Oxford, Oxford.Google Scholar
Krishnan, T. N. (1997), ‘The Route to Social Development in Kerala: Social Intermediation and Public Action’, in Mehrotra, Santosh and Jolly, Richard (eds.), Development with a Human Face, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Levy-Bruhl, D.et al. (1997), ‘The Bamako Initiative in Benin and Guinea: Improving the Effectiveness of Primary Health Care’, International Journal Health Planning Management, Vol 12, suppl.1, S49–S79.3.3.CO;2-G>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lindert, P. H. (2000), ‘What Drives Social Spending, 1980–2020’, mimeo, University of California: Davis.
Lindert, P. H. (2001), ‘Democracy, Decentralization, and Mass Schooling Before 1914’, Working Paper Series No. 104, Agricultural History Center, University of California, Davis, California.
Manor, J. (1999), The Political Economy of Democratic Decentralization, Washington D.C.: The World Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manor, James (2003), ‘Democratisation with Inclusion: Political Reforms and People's Empowerment at the Grassroots’, Background paper for Human Development Report 2003, www.undp.org.
Mehrotra, S. (1998), ‘Education for All: Policy Lessons from High Achieving Countries’, International Review of Education, Vol 44, 5/6, pp 461–484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehrotra, S. (ed.) (2005), The Economics of Elementary Education in India: The Challenges of Public Finance, Private Provision and Household Costs, New Delhi: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Mehrotra, S., Panchamukhi, P. R., Srivastava, R. and Srivastava, R. (2005), Universalizing Elementary Education in India. Uncaging the ‘Tiger’ Economy, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mehrotra, S. and Delamonica, E. (2006), Making Human Poverty History. Macro-economic and Fiscal Policies to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Mehrotra, S. and Jarrett, S. (2002), ‘Improving Health Services in Low-Income Countries: Voice for the Poor’, Social Science and Medicine, Vol 54, 11: 1685–1690.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narayan, Deepa, Chambers, Robert, Shah, Meera Kaul and Petesch, Patti (2000), Voices of the Poor: Crying Out for Change. New York: The World Bank, Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narayan, Deepa with Patel, Raj, Schafft, Kai, Rademacher, Anne and Koch-Schulte, Sarah (2000), Voices of the Poor: Can Anyone Hear Us? New York: The World Bank, Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raina., V. (2000), Year 2000 Assessment. Education for All. Decentralisation of Education, New Delhi: Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India and National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration.Google Scholar
Ramachandran, V. (1998), ‘The Indian Experience’ in Bridging the Gap Between Intention and Action. Girls' and Women's Education in South Asia, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Ramachandran, V. and Sethi, H. (2001) Rajasthan Karmi Project: An Overall Appraisal. New Education Division Documents No. 7, Education Division of SIDA. Stockholm: SIDA.
Roy, B. (1999), ‘The Politics of Waste and Corruption’ in The Right to Information, Lokayan Bulletin, Elements from the History of Struggle, Vol.1, 16–1, July–August, New Delhi.
Sachar, R. (1999), ‘Right to Information – The Constitutional Aspect’ in The Right to Information, Lokayan Bulletin, Contemporary Articles, Vol II, 16.2, September–October.
Saxena, N, C. (1997), Policy and Legal Reforms for the Poor in India, National Research and Resource Centre, LBS National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie – 248179, Paper no.1.
Singh, A. (2000), ‘Participatory Micro-Planning for Universal Primary Education’ in Year 2000 Assessment. Education for All, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, and National Institute or Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi.
Somanathan, E. (2001), ‘Empowering Local Government. Lessons from Europe’, Economic and Political Weekly, October 13.
Tendler, J. (1997), Good Governance in the Tropics, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Vyasulu, V. (1999) ‘Madhya Pradesh's Education Guarantee Scheme: What Are the Issues?’, Economic and Political Weekly, 34(24): 1542–3.Google Scholar
Wade, R. (1985), ‘The Market for Public Office: Why the Indian State is not Better at Development’, World Development 13(4): 467–497.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wade, R. (1989), ‘Politics and Graft: Recruitment, Appointment, and Promotion to Public Office in India’, in Ward, P. M. (ed.), Corruption, Development and Inequality: Soft Touch or Hard Graft?, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wiener, M. (1991), Child Labour and the State in India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
World Bank (1999), Education Sector Strategy, Washington D.C.: World Bank.
World Bank (2000), Overview of Rural Decentralisation in India, 3 vols, mimeographed, Washington, D.C., 27 September.
World Bank, World Development Report 2000/1, Attacking Poverty, New York: Oxford University Press.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×