Democracy and the Unequal Citizen: Rethinking Political Equality in a Stratified Society.
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Abstract
This paper critically engages with the idea of democracy in a stratified society like India and its evolving nature in contemporary times. It's base lies on the principle that citizens are political equals, yet the social conditions within which democratic citizenship is exercised remains somewhere questionable. This rise in tension constitutes one of the enduring paradoxes of democratic politics. While democratic institutions formally recognize citizens as equal participants, unequal distributions of economic resources, social status, political access, and power can produce markedly unequal capacities to influence collective decisions. This Paper interprets political equality by taking a shift beyond its procedural interpretation as equal voting rights towards a substantive understanding of equality as the capacity to exercise meaningful political voice as well as influence. Drawing on Rousseau’s conception of popular sovereignty, Rawls’s account of political justice, and Dahl’s formulation of political equality, this research paper highlights the normative framework of democratic equality (Rousseau, 2018; Rawls, 1971; Dahl, 1989, 2006). It then engages with various other theories of power to understand how political inequality operates not only through observable decision-making but also through agenda-setting, exclusion, and the reproduction of dominant interests (Bachrach & Baratz, 1962; Luke’s, 2005; Foucault, 1980). Further, Bourdieu’s theory of capital and the work of Fraser and Honneth illuminate how social and economic inequalities shape recognition, participation, and political voice (Bourdieu, 1986; Fraser & Honneth, 2003). Drawing particularly on Young and Jayal, this paper shows that formal citizenship does not necessarily produce substantive inclusion and equal representation (Young, 2000; Jayal, 2011, 2016). Finally, this paper contests that democratic equality cannot be sustained merely through equal political rights, it also requires confronting the unequal social structures that determine whose voice is heard, contests that gain representation, and whose political agency carries influence...
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