Public Interest: Indian view
★ Amartya Sen view
Amartya Sen → Book: Idea of Justice
- He criticised John Rawls' Theory of Justice
- Gave two approaches -
- (a) Capabilities approach
- (b) Entitlement approach
- He defined development as "The expansion of freedom (of choice).
Amartya Sen' view on Public interest
- Amartya Sen's approach to development related to the expansion of choices and a consequent freedom to exercise these choices.
- His approach to Entitlement obligates the state to provide a basic minimum needs as a right.
- So, most of the programs for inclusion and empowerment today is delivered in rights based approach. It has an implicit component of human right.
- For example - MGNREGA, Mid-day meal, etc.
- Human rights - Human rights are the necessary civil, political and natural rights which are required for an individual to live with dignity.
- UN Declaration of Human Right, a milestone document in the history of Human right was proclaimed by the UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) in Paris on December 10, 1948.
- For example - Right against exploitation, Right to life, Right to free & fair speech and expression, etc.
Sources of Fundamental Rights → Bills of Right (USA), French declaration of Fundamental Rights & Freedom Magna Carta, 1215
Difference between USA, Bills of Rights & Indian Fundamental Rights -
USA → Bills of Rights has no explicit restriction → restriction is implicit as USA believed in the 'Doctrine of (police) power of the state' where because of being a state, it has the authority to exercise the power to restrict the rights of the people for the larger goals even if it is not written.
India → Indian Fundamental Rights has explicit restriction mentioned in the Constitution of India and the state can restrict the rights of people only in the manner and case mentioned in the Constitution (i.e., India does not follow the doctrine of police power of the state).
- Capabilities approach tends to increase the capabilities of different sections of the society through improvement in social indicators like health, education, employment, etc.
- The capabilities once enhanced would create further opportunities, reducing the dependency on the state.
Surplus money → choice ↑, child labour ↓, Schooling ↑, etc. → Empowerment & development
★ Ambedkar's concept of Social Justice
- It revolves around the inclusion of the most backward within any policy framework.
- His approach to public interest includes the dismantling of caste system which is inherently exploitative.
- Unless the backwards are protected and the affirmative policies would bring them to the main stream, the Public interest can't be served.
- According to him, at the base of the political democracy/justice lies the social democracy/justice.
- Unless social disparities are removed, there is no meaning of political or economical rights.
★ Gandhi's concept of Development & Public interest
- Gandhi believed in the inclusion of the weakest of the weak.
- He gave the idea of 'Sarvodaya' which means 'Rise of all'.
- He gave the idea of 'Trusteeship'.
- He promoted village self-republic, i.e., decentralisation.
- He opposed the western model of Trickle down method and proposed the model of 'Non Ascending Circles' and 'Ripple effect'.
- The ultimate aim of Public interest - It must lead to the maximisation of benefits to the society.
Non Ascending circles → Development to be initiated from within the centre (i.e., from the village level)
Ripple effect → No region/community is above the other
Question for practice
The concept of Public interest is necessary to understand the scope of public administration. Comment.
Public interest can be broadly defined as the welfare or well being of the public. Since, the term public itself is dynamic/abstract in nature, the term public interest is highly subjective and abstract.
Though it is highly subjective and abstract, it is the duty of every state to work for the public interest, but the intensity and the extent of public interest varies according to the nature of the state, which requires a well defined administrative system.
Though public administration is a newly emerged discipline as compared to other political science, it had gained a lot of importance because of the emergence of administrative states. In modern times, it plays a very important role in delivering public interest, but as the nature of the state changes the scope and function of the public administration also changes.
For example - In police state the public administration is very powerful and becomes despotic whereas in welfaric state the public administration is still powerful but because of the welfaric nature of the state, public administration tends to serve the public interest; whereas in case of neo-liberal and workfaire state, the scope of public administration is very much limited (just as a facilitator).
Thus, the scope of public administration very much depends up on the nature of state which can be depicted to a very extent by the state's policies and philosophies of public interest it followed.
Question for practice
Is public interest a rational criteria to understand the nature of the state? Evaluate.
Public interest can be broadly defined as the welfare or well being of the public. Since, the term public itself is dynamic/abstract in nature, the term public interest is highly subjective and abstract.
Every state irrespective of its nature is obliged to work for the public interest but the extent of public interest varies depending up on the nature of the state.
For example - A police state may or may not work for public interest whereas a democratic welfaric state works for the betterment of the public and in case of Neo-liberal and Workfaire state where public is much more conscious about their interest, the state only acts as a facilitator.
Thus, the study of public interest helps to understand the nature of the state. But it does not be the only criteria to understand the nature of the state as the nature of the state depends on other factors also such as political system in the state, socio-economic factors, cultural factors, etc.
Also, as we know that the term public interest is very subjective, thus it can be one of the criteria but not the only rational criteria to understand the nature of the state.
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Optional Notes
Note - This is my Vision IAS Notes (Vision IAS Class Notes) and Ashutosh Pandey Sir's Public Administration Class notes. I've also added some of the information on my own.
Hope! It will help you to achieve your dream of getting selected in Civil Services Examination 👍
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