German Police: Marching Ahead on the Road to Elitism

In the recent years the police in Germany have been given higher status by eliminating lower ranks and making it possible for new recruits to start with a “commissioned officer'’ rank which means at the level of a lieutenant. This has been done in order to give them more salary and give recognition to the complexity of street‐level police work. The paper examines whether this change is bringing about positive results, particularly in narrowing the gap between the police and the public which has been a historically significant challenge for the police in Germany.     

Ranking of sectors based on fuzzy importance measure

The changing nature of policy variables specific to any planned developmental programme often leads to conflicting decisional problems regarding the identification of thrust areas. Hence the inherent requirement is for a composite index which eases out such ambiguous choice issues. The present paper introduces the measure of sectoral importance which is capable of encompassing different variables with their associated weights and ranks sectors in an economy based on such a measure. However, the term importance suggests the qualitativeness and subjectivity involved in defining such a concept and thus establishes the need for the concepts of fuzzy mathematics. The theory of fuzzy subsets is capable of dealing with qualitative variables within a quantitative framework. The sectoral importance measures derived from the sectoral output linkages, employment multipliers and value added multipliers, have been represented as fuzzy subsets, or to be precise, as fuzzy numbers. A comparison of these numbers through the binary approach of determination of the measure of relative strength provides the basis for the ranking of sectors. The novelty of the approach lies in its simplicity and flexibility in treating qualitative factors which characterise most decision support socio economic planning problems. The validity of the exercise has been tested by applying it to the economy of West Bengal, a State of India.     

Can the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme Reduce Rural Out-migration: Evidence from West Bengal,India

Abstract

Using survey data from the Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, the paper documents the impact of the rural employment guarantee scheme in reducing rural out-migration. Using regression framework and case studies, it finds no significant impact of household participation in the programme on migration decision. However, extent of participation in terms of number of days of work and earnings has a significant negative impact on short-term migration but not on longer duration ones. The findings lay emphasis on effective implementation in terms of asset creation, reduction in rationing of works and tackling delayed payments to enjoy its potential benefits.     

Public Resource Allocation through Grassroots Democratic Institutions: Evidence from Assam,India

ABSTRACT

The success of democratic institutions at the grassroots level in allocating public benefits to the target groups depends on people’s political participation. Applying logistic regression, ordinary least squares (OLS), and the Heckman model based on a data set collected from 30 panchayats from three districts of Assam (India), this article addresses three questions: (a) who participates? (b) who gets the public benefits? and (c) whether participants get more benefits. The results suggest no overwhelming elite capture and clientalization, and contributes to the current debate on the association between democracy and development by way of establishing that democracy at the grassroots does, indeed, deliver.     

Secularism in the Indian Context

Indian constitutional framers sought to tie their new state to ideas of modernity and liberalism by creating a government that would ensure citizens' rights while also creating the conditions for democratic citizenship. Balancing these two goals has been particularly challenging with regard to religion, as exemplified by the emergence of a peculiarly Indian understanding of secularism which requires the nonestablishment of religion but not the separation of religion and state. Supporters argue that this brand of secularism is best suited to the particular social and historical circumstances of independent India. This article suggests that the desire to separate religion and state is integral to any understanding of secularism and that, consequently, the Indian state neither is nor was meant to be secular. However, Indian secularists correctly identify the Indian state's distinctive approach to religion‐state relations as appropriate to the Indian context and in keeping with India's constitutional goals.