Direct Democracy vs. Participatory Democracy
- Gerardo E. Martínez-Solanas
- Category: Columnistas invitados / Guest columnists
- Hits: 19796
India is the stage nowadays of a wide political debate about participatory and representative democracy that has deserved headlines in The Telegraph, of Calcutta, and other major Indian newspapers, as well as televised debates at the Calcutta Club and Jantar Mantar regarding the campaign for the "Jan Lokpal bill", also known as the "citizens' ombudsman bill”, being promoted by the Anna Hazare's movement.
This bill ostensibly aims to deter corruption, redress citizens’ grievances and protect whistle-blowers with the intervention of a new independent ombudsman body, or Lokpal (a Sanskrit word meaning "protector of the people"). This is a high priority necessity in Indian daily political life and the proposed Lokpal, if approved, will be empowered to investigate complaints of corruption against politicians and bureaucrats outside of government officials influence.
Kisan Baburao Hazare, popularly known as Anna Hazare (photo), is a well-known political activist in India who succeeded in promoting this bill after an indefinite hunger strike in New Delhi attracting hundreds of thousands of supporters and provoking nation-wide protests. Hazare has been an active leader against corruption since 1991 and Foreign Policy magazine named him this year among the top 100 global thinkers. He allegedly follows the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and his nonviolent methods. However, he has expressed authoritarian views on justice, including death penalties for corrupt public officials.
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