Exploring Issues of Political Participation in Rajasthan

Political participation constitutes the sine qua non of democracy. The success of democracy depends upon the propensity of its citizens to participate actively in the political system. Since most of the democracies in the world today function through elected representatives, active political participation by the citizens as popular sovereigns entails exercise of their franchise. This paper seeks to explore a few issues of political participation in the state of Rajasthan. The paper picks up three basic indicators of political participation: voting turnout, interest as well as participation in electoral mobilisation and lastly, interest in what constitutes 'politics and public affairs'. These relate to three dimensions of political participation: as a voter, as an activist voter and as an active citizen. Introduction Perhaps no other statement depicts the crucial significance of political participation more than the one enunciated by none other than the father of political science, Aristotle, when he said that a man who does not live in a state is either a God or a beast. As social and political beings, we are rooted in our social and political milieu. This milieu shapes our political opinions and attitudes which in turn determine the milieu itself. As citizens, it is our prime duty to actively participate in the political system. Political participation not only enables us to realise our basic selves as social and political beings, it also provides us with a window to express our support for or opposition to the government of the day. Through such public expression of our political preferences we can ensure accountability and responsiveness on the part of the state. Arguably, political participation constitutes the sine qua non of democracy. The success of democracy depends upon the propensity of its citizens to participate actively in the political system. Since most of the democracies in the world today function through elected representatives, active political participation by the citizens as popular sovereigns entails exercise of their franchise. The vibrancy of a democracy is measured by the number of people who deem it fit to express their political preferences by using their right to vote. Judgment about the nature of democracy is determined by the composition of the actual electorate. The choice invariably is between an inclusive or an exclusive/ elitist model of democracy. Moving up the ladder of active citizenry, we can distinguish between 'voters' and 'activist voters'. The former being those who limit themselves to the secular duty of casting their vote whereas the latter are those who also not only take interest in election campaigning but also canvass on behalf of a political party to mobilize electoral support of other voters. However, political participation in a democracy is not just about voting or campaigning. It is also about 'active citizens' who engage themselves in the political enterprise beyond the electoral arena. These are people who display substantive political energies to involve themselves in the process of governance on a day-to-day basis either as votaries of a particular political party or as more objective umpires of the incumbent government. It is in the background of this short introductory formulation that this paper seeks to explore a few issues of political participation in the state of Rajasthan. The paper picks up three basic indicators of political participation: voting turnout, interest as well as participation in electoral mobilisation and lastly, interest in what constitutes 'polities and public affairs'. These relate to three dimensions of political participation: as a voter, as an activist voter and as an active citizen. The paper also throws light on those who are passive as voters and ponders upon the question as to why certain people do not vote. Moving beyond the aggregate picture, a deeper probe is launched to examine whether demographic variables such as locality, education, caste group, class position, age and religion have any impact, positive or negative, on one's political participation. …