4
Sections 5 and 6 examine some features of institutional design that are intended to
safeguard participation by weaker sections. “Decentralization only works toward
democratization if it is combined with positive action in favor of underprivileged groups,” it is
asserted (Pieterse 2001), and elements of affirmative action introduced by legislation in India are
examined for their effects upon participation and benefit sharing. A proportion of elected offices
in panchayats has been reserved by law for three categories of village residents – women,
scheduled castes (SCs,) and scheduled tribes (STs).
Although different structural safeguards have featured prominently in the discussion on
equitable decentralization,
8
the present examination shows that a parallel set of policy measures
– related to preparing people for the task of participating in governance – can have a more
substantial effect on equity and on participation. People who are educated, even to the
elementary level, and who can access information from a larger number of sources, are able to
participate more often and more effectively than others, regardless of their income and ethnic
backgrounds. They are also more likely to obtain a fair share of benefits and services.
Education and information are consistently associated with greater participation and more
equitable benefit sharing, and wealth and caste status have relatively little to do with these
results, though gender is still an important handicap.
Wealth and social status have been found to matter considerably for participation in other
countries and contexts (Schattschneider 1960; Verba, Nie and Kim 1978; Verba, Schlozman and
Brady 1995). Because lower caste and poor persons in these Indian contexts have shared widely
in the expansion of elementary education, however, their participation in the process and
outcomes of panchayats is not significantly different, on average, from that of upper caste and
Convention