Format:
1 Online-Ressource (219 Seiten).
ISBN:
978-0-674-24570-9
,
978-0-674-24568-6
,
978-0-674-24569-3
Content:
"How did the founders of the most populous democratic nation in the world meet the problem of establishing a democracy after the departure of foreign rule? The justification for British imperial rule had stressed the impossibility of Indian self-government. At the heart of India's founding moment, in which constitution-making and democratization occurred simultaneously, lay the question of how to implement democracy in an environment regarded as unqualified for its existence. India's founders met this challenge in direct terms-the people, they acknowledged, had to be educated to create democratic citizens. But the path to education lay not in being ruled by a superior class of men but rather in the very creation of a self-sustaining politics. Universal suffrage was instituted amidst poverty, illiteracy, social heterogeneity, and centuries of tradition. Under the guidance of B. R. Ambedkar, Indian lawmakers crafted a constitutional system that could respond to the problem of democratization under the most inhospitable of conditions. On January 26, 1950, the Indian constitution-the longest in the world-came into effect. More than half of the world's constitutions have been written in the past three decades. Unlike the constitutional revolutions of the late-eighteenth century, these contemporary revolutions have occurred in countries that are characterized by low levels of economic growth and education; are divided by race, religion, and ethnicity; and have democratized at once, rather than gradually. The Indian founding is a natural reference point for such constitutional moments-when democracy, constitutionalism, and modernity occur simultaneously"--
Note:
Introduction: The Indian Problem -- The grammar of constitutionalism -- The location of power -- Identity and representation -- Conclusion: Constitutional democracy today
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe ISBN 978-0-674-98087-7
Language:
English
Keywords:
1891-1956 Ambedkar, Bhimrao Ramji
;
The Constitution of India
;
Demokratie
;
History
DOI:
10.4159/9780674245709
URL:
Volltext
(URL des Erstveröffentlichers)
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