Democracy and Diversity: Comparing India and the United States

by Shankar Bajpai (Editor)

This volume is a comparative study of the Indian and American experiences of democracy. They deal with institutions and ethnicity, idea of the nation-state, linguistic diversity, minorities question, political parties and democratic practices, federalism and decentralization.

312 pages, Hardcover

First published March 22, 2007

Reviews

[Steven Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of essays including work by such major contributors to the field of comparative politics as Arend Lijphart, Alfred Stepan, and Juan Linz. One of the approaches of the book was to take prominent scholars of comparative politics and introduce them to the Indian case, including field research in country. The book also includes work by Indian scholars who, in turn, more thoroughly studies the US case.

The intro essay by the project's coordinator (Bajpai) rightly notes the following:

1. India is a major case that deserves greater attention within comparative politics if anything because of its size. Its remarkable ability to develop and sustain a democracy with such a diverse population especially underscores its desirability as a case for study.

2. The United States is underrepresented as a case in comparative politics (something the project I am currently working on seeks to help rectify!) and therefore there is value in placing the US in the center of a comparative work.

3. There are key reasons to specifically compare the US and India. Both are large democracies. Indeed, they are the two largest in population (India, #1 and the US #2) and two of three largest in land area (#2 the US and #3 India--Canada is #1).

The book is interesting for a variety of reasons beyond those noted above. It provides information relevant to democratic development and to the study of federalism.