State And Participatory Governance in North-East India

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Participatory governance focuses on deepening democratic engagement through the participation of citizens in the processes of governance of the state. In this citizens should play a more direct role in public decision-making or at least engage more deeply with political issues. Keeping in view of this, National Seminar on State and Participatory Governance with a focus to Northeast India, interested scholars were invited to write Seminar Papers. So this book is the product of the academic interactions mainly on governance issues by different scholars. There are sixteen papers dealing with various issues relating to governance with special focus on India Northeast. The book will be very useful for the policy makers, administrator, teachers and research scholars.

LALNEIHZOVI, MA, Ph. D. (Public Administration) has been teaching Public Administration subject at the PG and PG Diploma level in the then NEHU, Mizoram Campus, Aizawl (now) Mizoram University since 1989. Presently, she is Professor and Head, Department of Public University.

Administration, Mizoram, She being the first woman to obtain M.A. and Ph. D Degree in Public Administration in the Mizo-society and Professor in Northeast made significant contributions to promote the discipline of Public Administration at the then NEHU and MZU through supervising Ph. D. and M. Phil scholars; teaching and formulating courses at all levels of post-graduate, under- graduate and civil service syllabi; published good number of articles in prestigious journals; chapters in books, and authored and co- authored/edited 10 books.

The essence of democracy lies in participatory governance: the heart of the matter in which the ideals of democracy are realized. Democracy is sustained by participatory governance while the latter owes its existence of the former. In other words, we can simply say that they are complementary. In a democratic country like India, the fate of inclusive socio-economic development depends on whether the citizens are empowered to participate, directly or indirectly, in the process of governance and more so in the context of the underdeveloped North-eastern states.

India's North Eastern region is home to several ethic groups and has over 200 of the 635 tribal groups in the country with a strong tradition of social and cultural identity. The socio-economic gaps between the region and the country as well as within the region can be bridged it effective participatory governances can be evolved in their own setting. Development should be based on the needs and aspiration of the people, that is, participatory governance is the need of the hour of the North-east India.

North East India comprises of eight States, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. It is situated in the easternmost part of India surrounded by the plains of Bangladesh on the West and on the East and North by the hills of Myanmar and China respectively.

Governance refers to the processes through which individuals and state officials interact to express their interests, exercise their rights and obligations, work out their differences, and cooperate to produce public goods and services. It is a process whereby elements in society wield power, authority and influence and enact policies and decisions concerning public life and social upliftment. Participatory governance focuses on deepening democratic engagement through the participation of citizens in the processes of governance in the State. The idea behind participatory governance is that citizens should play a more direct role in public decision-making or at least engage more deeply with political issues. In practice, participatory governance can supplement the roles of citizens as voters or as watchdogs through more direct forms of involvement. Government officials should also be responsive to this kind of engagement.

**Contents and Sample Pages**