[Reader-list] `The Role of Judgement in Politics and Explanations of Politics’

[Rajesh Ramakrishnan]

Wednesday, 6th August, 2008
You are invited to a talk on:

`The Role of Judgement in Politics and Explanations of Politics'

By Sanjay Ruparelia
at 3 PM in the Seminar Hall, CSDS, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi – 110 054



As individual citizens, we normally recognise that an essential aspect
of political life concerns the exercise of judgment.  Indeed, we make
judgments on a daily basis, deciding what we should do and commenting
on the judgments of others.  Various considerations - moral,
political, historical - inform these judgments.  But our understanding
of political judgment, per se, stresses whether a particular actor has
'read' a situation correctly.  In doing so, we imply that good
political judgment requires attention to particulars, practical
considerations and the consequences of action: to understand what is,
and is not, possible for a social actor to do in specific historical
circumstances.  Good political judgment is a mode of reasoning that
cannot be guided by general theoretical principles.  Moreover, it
cannot be generalised. Yet as scholars, our political explanations
aspire towards generalisation and overlook the necessity, practice and
difficulty of judgment.  What explains this apparent omission?  Why
does political judgment matter?  And what are its ramifications for
the status of conventional political explanations and the logic of
inquiry that informs them? This paper explores these critical
neglected questions.  Although largely theoretical, it seeks to
explain the significance of political judgment in India's coalition
politics, and our understanding of these politics.

Sanjay Ruparelia, Visiting Fellow at CSDS, is Assistant Professor of
Political Science at the New School for Social Research.  Dr.
Ruparelia received his PhD in politics from the Faculty of Social and
Political Sciences, University of Cambridge. His present research
analyses the relationship between economic liberalisation, militant
Hindu nationalism and the rise of lower-caste, communist and regional
parties. He is writing a book manuscript, provisionally entitled,
"Divided We Govern: Federal Coalition Politics in India", which
analyses the importance of institutions, power and judgment in
explaining the politics of the 'third force' since 1989.  He is also
co-editing a multidisciplinary volume of essays, "A Great
Transformation? Understanding India's New Political Economy", which
examines the preceding general themes.  His previous research on
federal coalition politics has been published in Comparative Politics
and Economic and Political Weekly.