The Decline of the Indian Parliament

Indian Parliament had a very promising start and worked well during the1950s-1960s. During the 1970s Parliament was squeezed by a great extra-parliamentary mass movement against authoritarianism and corruption and partial but crippling subversion of parliamentary-federal Constitution during the national emergency. Democracy was restored following the 1977 general elections. But the general decline of Parliament that set in the post-Nehru era has not yet been reversed. Major indicators of this decline are shortening sessions, time lost due to disruptions in proceedings by the opposition and violation of norms and precedents by the government, rampant absenteeism, actual hours of sitting as a percentage of available hours, phenomenon of weak legislative federalism via Rajya Sabha in the overall setting of parliamentary-federalism, challenges of new extra-parliamentary mass movements, and judicial activism. The new committee system introduced since 1993 is a welcome development. However, the parliamentary reforms recommended by the constitutional review commission (2002) remain unimplemented.     

An investigation in exchange rate behavior of emerging countries

This study deals with the relative performance of major exponential smoothing models (Simple exponential (SES), Holt's double parameter exponential (HTPES) and Winter's three parameter exponential (WTPES) used in forecasting exchange rates of emerging countries.     

Why growth is not enough: Household poverty dynamics in Northeast Gujarat,India

Despite high growth rates in Gujarat, exceeding 9 per cent per year over the decade of the 1990s, poverty in 36 villages located in the northeastern part of this state has changed hardly at all. In these villages, 9.5 per cent of households escaped from poverty over the past 25 years, but 6.3 per cent of households became poor at the same time. Escape and descent are not symmetric: different reasons account for escaping poverty than those for declining into poverty. Growth alone is hardly sufficient to achieve poverty reduction on any significant scale. Public policies will be needed to address directly the separate causes for descent into poverty.     

Exclusionary Democratization in Nepal, 1990–2002

Procedural processes like periodic elections based on universal adult franchise, political rights and civil liberties may not ensure the inclusion of minorities in governance of multiethnic democracies. The Nepali case shows that exclusion from governance may in fact increase in new democracies. However, as the open polity facilitates awareness and mobilization among the disadvantaged groups, the over all effect, despite the exclusion, is democratization. The exclusion, however, could lead to the derailment of democracy as sections of the excluded groups question the legitimacy of the process that excludes them while others support non-democratic forces. This study discusses the role of historical legacies, majoritarian political institutions, informal norms, and political elite attitudes and behaviour for the continuation or increase in political exclusion in Nepal.     

印度宪法：于多样性中统一的典范

一、引言 印度1950年宪法，尽管显然是欧美自由宪法观的产物，但是其同时是建立在印度四千多年历史过程中所形成的古老传统以及印度人民在当代殖民统治中所获的经验的基础上的。尽管其形式亦很容易使人联想起殖民统治者为统治印度而制定的宪法性文件，但其精神则是本土的。它是不满当时既有的宪制（constitutional arrangements）而追求新的开始的印度人民的创造。