Democracy - The Institutions

The last time I wrote on this (long long time ago, I can still remember...:) Democracy - A Note) I closed by saying that active citizenship is what is required for a democracy to become real.
To be effective and active, a citizen should have the knowledge of the fundamental institutions that are presented as the pillars of democracy. Of course it is impractical to expect people to have academic knowledge of these institutions; instead a practical knowledge of the role of each institution should suffice. Although a strict set of institutions is hard to define, the following general characteristics should ideally be established –

• Elected Representatives - Control of government by members of a parliament or assembly etc. elected by citizens.
• Free, fair and frequent elections - with minimal coercion and fraud.
• Freedom of Expression - All citizens should have the right to express themselves on matters political as well others without fear of reprimand from the existing government.
• Access to alternate sources of information - All citizens must have the opportunity to form opinions using data available from multiple sources (as opposed to the "official" sources), so this clearly refers to the freedom of press.
• Autonomous associations - All citizens should have the right to form associations based on interests.
• Inclusive citizenship - All citizens of the country should be bound by the same set of rules and guidelines
• Independence of the judiciary - The judiciary should be accessible to all and more importantly must be separate from the government.
• Impartial civil service - The civil service should be autonomous and not partial towards the government of the day.

Now let us re-examine the institutions with respect to our motherland.

• Elected Representatives - Clearly we have this institution well and running. But the main problem for India is the fact that we have come to a stage where nearly 2 million people are represented by a single person in the Parliament, an average that makes it impossible for a citizen to really make his/her voice heard (all the more reason for him/her to become an active citizen). UK on the other hand has 646 members in the House of Commons making a people/member average of around 100,000 (that is 2o times less than ours). Well one solution could be to raise the total number of seats (will require an amendment as the max perceived strength is 552 according to the constitution). Well it is hard to make things work with 200 odd that do show up in the first place :)
• Free, fair and frequent elections - We definitely do have frequent elections, the other 2 conditions are on dodgy grounds...but I would like to believe that it's not yet a disease. I don't have any data to make an opinion otherwise anyways...
• Freedom of Expression - It is there and it is not there. All depends on what you are trying to say. Books are banned regularly, gag orders are issued too. As for the freedom of press, India was ranked 120 out of 167 by reporters sans frontiers (www.rsf.org) though it does add - "Countries such as the Philippines (111th), India (120th) and Indonesia (117th) figure in the bottom half of the index despite having free and lively independent media, since killings and physical attacks on journalists, along with outdated laws, still prevent a full flowering of the press. Violence against the media in India rarely comes from the authorities but from political activists and in Kashmir from armed groups."
• Access to alternate sources of information - Well again it's there and not there. RTI was brought in to correct this but it has not yet reached the common people (wonder why the government is the least active in spreading the word about it).
• Autonomous associations - The party system thrives here, a little too much perhaps (sigh).
• Inclusive citizenship - This is a problem issue (imho) as it has been the root cause for some of the most deep crevices in our society. Take the special treatment for minorities (separate laws) or the issue of reservation. Both good on paper but deadly in the hands of our "great leaders" and "intellectuals" alike.
• Independence of the judiciary - Overactive at times but definitely and unabashedly independent. So independent that there seems to be no way to cure all the decay that is prevalent (lawyer strikes, long holidays, pending cases, just to name a few).
• Impartial civil service - this has hardly ever existed, some how the bureaucracy has never found its feet.

So how do we ensure that a citizen is active or forced to be active? Umm, next section maybe...