Indian Democracy: Stress and Resilience

While we have witnessed many transitions to multiparty systems, it has proven much harder for countries to attain a genuine rule of law. We need to know more about the…

Home to about a quarter of the world’s people, South Asia presents a murky and not very encouraging picture when it comes to democracy.

India has long baffled theorists of democracy. Democratic theory holds that poverty, widespread illiteracy, and a deeply hierarchical social structure are inhospitable conditions for the functioning of democracy. Yet except…