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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

What is meant by democratic decentralization? Assess the working of Panchayati Raj in India.

  • UPSC 2001
  • Politics and Society in India

Democratic decentralisation is the transfer of decision-making authority, money and staff to elected bodies at lower levels, so that participation becomes structural rather than exhorted. The Balvantray Mehta Committee (1957) gave the term its Indian currency; what follows measures three decades of Panchayati Raj against that definition.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions.

What the full answer covers

  • The standard: what must be devolved
  • The politics of non-devolution
  • The sociology of capture
  • The gram sabha: the weakest joint
  • What has worked
  • Conclusion

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