CBB214 | Beyond the Ballot: Direct Democracy and the Law

The course aims to introduce students to democratic innovations centred on direct public involvement in decision making instead of indirect participation through their elected representatives. Referendums have been a popular subject of study and discussion as a form of exercising direct democracy. However, this course will also examine recent developments like citizens assemblies. Further, it will also analyse how the public directly participates in decision making in India. The course would focus on rules, institutions and processes that inform these democratic innovations and its evolution within the concerned context. In doing so, it will highlight the features of representative democracy that led to such innovations, explore the interaction between representation and direct democracy models, analyse the issues that arise from direct democracy models such as selection, process, management of outcomes and recent concerns of misinformation.

The course will be divided into the following four modules:

I. Bringing in the people

In this module students will be introduced to ideas and practices to ‘bring the people’ into decision making about public issues, directly or indirectly, over time. Students will engage with concepts such as representative democracy and direct democracy. Further, it will also aim to address questions such as “who are the people?’ for the purposes of course who will participate directly in decision making.

II. Experiments with direct democracy: lessons from around the world

In this module students will be introduced to different forms of direct democracy models employed across various jurisdictions. It will emphasise on the rules, institutions and processes that create and sustain these models. The sessions will deal with referendums, mini-publics and citizen’s assemblies.

III. Decoding the myth in the Indian context

It is often stated that India does not have any substantive exercise of direct democracy. However, in this module students will be probing if that is the case. They will study systems like the Gram Sabhas and environment impact assessment models to determine whether there is a space for direct participation of the people in decision making with respect to policies in India.

IV. Squaring the circle? Working with participation and deliberation

In this module, students will consider the potential challenges raised by newer deliberative mechanisms. It will address issues of both design and practice. This will leave students with an understanding of the range of mechanisms for direct public participation and at the same time develop tools to critique such models when required.