Authored by Dr. Gautam Sen
Retired Professor, Department of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science, London University
Volume 1, Issue 1 | November 29, 2020
Abstract
The article examines the historical and broad theoretical issues of governance central to the organisation and functioning of society, surveying the earliest experiences and ideas that date back to the ancient Greeks as well as more contemporary reflections. It also evaluates the politics of India’s governance historically as well as in the period following Indian independence in 1947. It points to the shortcomings in governance with particular focus on India in the latter period and the underlying political and institutional reasons for them. The final section suggests that the accident of modern technological revolutions, associated with computing and the falling costs of information storage, significant possibilities of overcoming the shortcomings in governance have become possible. Major changes in the interface between political authority and the bureaucracy and the ordinary citizen are now feasible. It concludes by identifying the multiple dimensions of such changes in the relationship between the state and its citizens owing to digitisation while also recognising the dangers posed by the accumulation of so much information in the hands of political authority on its citizens.
Keywords: Greeks, governance, corruption, India, state, Presidential system computing, digitisation, instituions politics.
Download the paper by clicking here