PUBLIC DELIBERATIONS IN PALLI SABHAS OF PANCHAYATI RAJ INSTITUTIONS a STUDY OF ODISHA

Abstract

The complexities of modern world demand that democracy cannot simply be a matter of procedures. There is a need to invoke the old idea of civic virtue in modern democracies. This assumes more significance in India where there is huge gap between rich and poor and absence of the poor in the decision making process. The large number of marginalized and newlineexcluded groups compels us to think about deliberative pattern of democracy. Deliberative democracy argues for public deliberation and civic engagement. Indian democracy as it has been practiced so far raises many questions with regard to the exclusion of many groups from the decision making process. It is true that the formal procedural aggregative model of democracy has failed to evolve an inclusive policy which could ensure the inclusion of the historically socially and culturally excluded groups in the decision making process. Dalits, tribals and women are mostly excluded from the mainstream Indian political system. Can newline