Accounts and Accountability: Theoretical Implications of the Right-to-Information Movement in India

In: Third world quarterly, Band 20, Heft 3, S. 603-622

Abstract

The work of a small & unusual activist group in the Indian state of Rajasthan has raised a series of practical & theoretical issues concerning the best means for combating specific instances of corruption, & for promoting accountability more generally. The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan ([Workers' & Farmers' Power Organization] MKSS) has waged a campaign to secure the access of ordinary people to information held by government officials. In the process of experimenting with methods of compiling, sharing, & verifying expenditure data at local levels -- thus far, in the absence of statutory entitlement to such information -- the MKSS has developed a radical interpretation of the notion that citizens have a right both to know how they are governed & to participate actively in the process of auditing their representatives. Focus here is on the process by which this campaign emerged & the means by which it pursues its goals. Analyzed in conclusion are the implications of the MKSS experience -- & the larger movement it has spawned -- for contemporary debate in three areas: human rights, participatory development, & an end to corruption. Adapted from the source document.