» An Introduction to Lokniti
» Organisation
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An Introduction, our beginnings,
our work |
Lokniti - Programme for Comparative Democracy was established in
1997 as a research programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing
Societies (
CSDS),
New Delhi. The CSDS is an autonomous social science research institution.
Since the inception of the CSDS in 1963, the writings of scholars
like Rajni Kothari, D.L. Sheth and Ashis Nandy have become a point
of reference for various attempts from the South to question the
global establishment view of democracy. The CSDS has argued in favour
of a more humane holistic view of democracy that goes beyond democratic
institutions ad processes in their arrow sense and emphasises the
survival of dissent and cultural contents of the civil society as
central concerns of democracy.
The CSDS can be said to have pioneered large-scale empirical studies
of the social and cultural basis of politics in South Asia. It also
participated in empirical studies of politics in Africa, South America
and East Europe at a time when many of these societies were relatively
inaccessible. Outside Europe and North America, the CSDS Data Unit
holdings might constitute one of the largest archive of social scientifically
reliable survey data on political behaviour and attitudes, spanning
more than three decades.
By bringing various projects of the CSDS on elections and party
politics together under a single programme, Lokniti seeks to engage
with the global debates on democracy. In an age where globalisation
of democracy has come to mean a universalisation of a thin checklist
model of managerial governance and cultural homogenisation, the
worth of a participatory model of plural democracy, a model that
recognises multiple paths to realising the rich ideals of democracy,
cannot be over-emphasised.
