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Showing posts with the label Indian democracy

Decision Making as Output and Bounded Rationality

  The classical economics theories proceed on the assumption of rational agents. Rationality implies the economic agents undertake actions or exercise choices based on the cost-benefit analysis they undertake. The assumption further posits that there exists no information asymmetry and thus the agent is aware of all the costs and benefits associated with the choice he or she has exercised. The behavioral school contested the decision stating the decisions in practice are often irrational. Implied there is a continuous departure from rationality. Rationality in the views of the behavioral school is more an exception to the norm rather a rule. The past posts have discussed the limitations of this view by the behavioral school. Economics has often posited rationality in the context in which the choices are exercised rather than theoretical abstract view of rational action. Rational action in theory seems to be grounded in zero restraint situation yet in practice, there are numerous restra

Decoding Western Thinking on Indian Democratic Standards

  Sometime back in the Rajya Sabha, a MP from AAP raised the issue of a Swedish think tank downgrading the status of Indian democracy. The Vice President who was in the Chair was contemptuous and did not allow any further comments or references to the topic. Now that the V-Dem has released its report calling India an ‘elected autocracy’ for whatever that means. A couple of weeks back, Freedom House a think tank funded by the US government downgraded Indian democracy from free to ‘partly free’. The discussions over these reports seem to be expected lines and have provided enough fodder to all suiting their political preferences.   To the critics, the report seem to reinforce their perception that Modi is a dictator for whatever that means to them. To the supporters, it is the colored perception of the West that refuses to recognizes the ground realities in India.   India is free and well flourishing democracy. The elections have been held at regular intervals. The governments have c