A large citizen survey was conducted in Bengaluru to better understand the everyday practices through which citizens effectively wield their rights. This is beyond conventional measures of voter turnout or generalisations about citizen participation in politics. The key takeaway is that the poor access the state through political participation and the rich through their influence and connections.
It was also found that unlike the conventional celebration of participation as a citizenship-deepening activity, a substantial part of participation is associated with forms of brokerage that compromise democratic citizenship.
In this episode of BIC Talks, political scientist Ashutosh Varshney presents the findings of the study and its implications for understanding the nature of urban democracy.
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