Participatory Rural Self-Governance under the Left Regime in West Bengal: An Alternative to Neoliberal Developmentalism

Manik Bhattacharya and Sudipta Bhattacharyya
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Manik Bhattacharya: Government Degree College, Dharmanagar, Tripura (North), India.
Sudipta Bhattacharyya: Visva-Bharati, West Bengal, India

The European Journal of Development Research, 2013, vol. 25, issue 3, 385-407

Abstract: On the basis of a primary field survey, this study analyses the participation of the rural poor in the political and administrative decision-making process and its interdependence on the village-level class structure in the differentiated economy of West Bengal. Despite a process of robust state intervention under the Left Front Government, the higher economic classes have clear domination in the share of land and non-land assets. The rural poor have domination in the process of decentralised participatory democracy, as well as political awareness activities. The West Bengal experience of participatory development can be characterised as an alternative to the neoliberal idea of anti-statism and NGO-isation during the regime of Left Front government. This study observed that in the Gram Sabha and Gram Sansad meetings a majority of attendees and vocal members belong to weaker classes.Basée sur une enquête préliminaire de terrain, cette étude vise à analyser la participation des populations rurales pauvres au processus de décision politique et administrative et son interdépendance avec la structure de classes au niveau des villages et dans le contexte économique différencié du Bengale-Occidental. Malgré un processus d’intervention publique robuste entrepris par le gouvernement du Front de gauche, les classes économiques supérieures dominent nettement en termes de possession de biens fonciers et non fonciers. Les populations rurales pauvres, elles, dominent en ce qui concerne le processus de démocratie participative décentralisée ainsi que les activités de sensibilisation politique. Le processus de développement participatif mis en œuvre au Bengale-Occidental par le gouvernement du Front de gauche peut être qualifié d’alternative à l’idée néolibérale d’antiétatisme et d’ONG-isation. Cette étude a constaté que les membres des classes les plus faibles représentent la majorité des participants aux réunions du Gram Sabha et du Gram Sansad, et qu’ils sont ceux qui s’expriment le plus fortement.

Date: 2013
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