Democracy Dialogues Lecture Series (Online )
Organised by New Socialist Initiative
24th Lecture
Theme: The Erosion Of Liberal Democracy in India: An Analysis
Speaker: Prof Pranab Bardhan ( Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley)
Date and Time: 27 August 2023 at 10 AM (IST).
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Topic : The Erosion Of Liberal
Democracy in India: An Analysis
A
Brief Outline of the theme shared by Prof. Bardhan
I'll
start with the global context of the turn of politics to right-wing extremism
in much of the world.
One
of the major factors behind this is the weakening of trade unions and of labour
movements in general, which in earlier days used to act as a major force of
resistance.
I
shall then look into the weakening of labour movements in India and the
pathetic failure of the Left political organizations. I shall analyze the
deficiencies in their economic policies, mobilization strategies and governance
failures even in areas where they used to be influential. Just blaming the
semi-fascist Right is not good enough.
I
shall end with a general discussion of how in prevailing Indian ideologies
(including that of the Left) liberal democracy has often been under-valued.
Background Reading for the Talk :
(a)
For some global context on the turn to the Right, Prof Pranab Bardhan's
book A World of Insecurity: Democratic Disenchantment in Rich and
Poor Countries (Harvard University Press publication, with a cheaper
Indian edition distributed by Harper Collins India)
(b)
Prof Bardhan's article in New Left Review, July-August 2022, titled
"The 'New India': a Political-Economic Diagnosis"
Speaker :
Pranab Bardhan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics at
the Department of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley.
He was educated at Presidency
College, Kolkata and Cambridge University, England. He had been at the faculty
of MIT, Indian Statistical Institute and Delhi School of Economics before
joining Berkeley.
He has done theoretical and field
studies research on rural institutions in poor countries, on political economy
of development policies, and on international trade.
He was Chief Editor of the Journal
of Development Economics for 1985-2003.
He is the author of 17 books and
editor of 14 other books, and author of more than 150 journal articles including
in leading Economics journals
His latest book titled A
World of Insecurity: Democratic Disenchantment in Rich and Poor Countries was
published by Harvard University Press in late 2022.
His memoir titled Charaiveti:
An Academic's Global Journey is being published by Harper Collins
India in late 2023.
His memoir in Bengali (titled Smriti-kanduyan,
'Memory-Sratching') has been serialized in Kolkata's leading literary magazine,
Desh, and the book came out in January 2014.
He has also contributed essays to
popular outlets and some of these popular pieces have now been collected in his
latest books, Globalization, Democracy and Corruption and Indian
Polity and Economy:A Mirror to Difficult Times (Frontpage
Publications). A collection of his Bengali essays has been published by Ananda
Publishers in Kolkata in 2020.
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