ABSTRACT

Democracy is the governing principle of political organization of our times. Most countries have adopted constitutions and charters that are explicitly based on the idea of democratic government. The rhetoric of democracy dominates public discourse even more strongly.1 No one would dare to declare him/herself undemocratic; at the same time accusations of democracy being limited, of there being a democratic deficit or undemocratic institutions are almost a daily routine. People are ready to take to the streets to protest and reclaim democratic institutions; sometimes they are ready to die for them. In scholarly debates too, the principle of democracy is undeniably hegemonic and few are the intellectuals attempting to launch a criticism of it. Democracy is unquestionably the paradigm of contemporary politics.