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The Creation and Withdrawal of Spaces for Participatory Governance : The Case of Village Development Committees in West Bengal, India

Dasgupta, Debjani and Williams, Glyn LU orcid (2023) In Politics and Society 51(4). p.493-519
Abstract

This article examines how more democratic forms of state-citizen engagement can be engineered under less than favorable political conditions, through the case of the Village Development Committees under the Left Front government in West Bengal, India. Our research shows that these Committees embodied empowered participatory governance ideals and made meaningful contributions to citizens' participation within the local state, confirming the potential for well-designed institutions to deepen democratic engagement. However, this reform's abrupt reversal indicates that leftist parties are not automatically wholehearted supporters of empowered participatory governance, and that this reform needed to be connected to a wider set of claims... (More)

This article examines how more democratic forms of state-citizen engagement can be engineered under less than favorable political conditions, through the case of the Village Development Committees under the Left Front government in West Bengal, India. Our research shows that these Committees embodied empowered participatory governance ideals and made meaningful contributions to citizens' participation within the local state, confirming the potential for well-designed institutions to deepen democratic engagement. However, this reform's abrupt reversal indicates that leftist parties are not automatically wholehearted supporters of empowered participatory governance, and that this reform needed to be connected to a wider set of claims about the Left Front's participatory successes, in order to build its legitimacy. Our wider argument is that research should examine not only the quality of participatory spaces themselves but also their political contexts, if we are to understand how experiments in empowered participatory governance can “scale up” and become durable.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
empowered participatory governance, Left Front, participatory planning, West Bengal
in
Politics and Society
volume
51
issue
4
pages
27 pages
publisher
SAGE Publications
external identifiers
  • scopus:85132437296
ISSN
0032-3292
DOI
10.1177/00323292221102133
language
English
LU publication?
no
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022.
id
c32832c2-5721-4fd7-8c08-590704d46063
date added to LUP
2025-05-29 21:28:38
date last changed
2025-06-03 08:48:43
@article{c32832c2-5721-4fd7-8c08-590704d46063,
  abstract     = {{<p>This article examines how more democratic forms of state-citizen engagement can be engineered under less than favorable political conditions, through the case of the Village Development Committees under the Left Front government in West Bengal, India. Our research shows that these Committees embodied empowered participatory governance ideals and made meaningful contributions to citizens' participation within the local state, confirming the potential for well-designed institutions to deepen democratic engagement. However, this reform's abrupt reversal indicates that leftist parties are not automatically wholehearted supporters of empowered participatory governance, and that this reform needed to be connected to a wider set of claims about the Left Front's participatory successes, in order to build its legitimacy. Our wider argument is that research should examine not only the quality of participatory spaces themselves but also their political contexts, if we are to understand how experiments in empowered participatory governance can “scale up” and become durable.</p>}},
  author       = {{Dasgupta, Debjani and Williams, Glyn}},
  issn         = {{0032-3292}},
  keywords     = {{empowered participatory governance; Left Front; participatory planning; West Bengal}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{493--519}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  series       = {{Politics and Society}},
  title        = {{The Creation and Withdrawal of Spaces for Participatory Governance : The Case of Village Development Committees in West Bengal, India}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00323292221102133}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/00323292221102133}},
  volume       = {{51}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}