Challenges of democracy in India

This study explores the relationship between the state and democracy in India in the late 1980s, through an examination of" challenges to state policy in three important areas: welfare, secularism and development. It was inspired by the observation that, while there are several studies analysing the relationship of democracy and development - albeit mostly of how democracy constrains development - as well as some studies of the impact of democracy on governability, there appears to be no cross-sectoral investigation into the question of the impact of democratic institutions and processes on state-initiated goals of social transformation, and its ability to effect these. This is the gap that this study seeks to fill.