Conference Year: 2012

Affirmative action policies are usually conceptualized as ways of promoting social equality by increasing marginalized groups’ access to the state and resources. The diversification of state representatives through affirmative action policies can also democratize the state, as these officials will hopefully be more responsive to communities. I argue that there is another potential benefit of …

Diversifying and Decentralizing the State: Affirmative Action as a Potential Tool for Empowering Local Communities Read More »

Affirmative action policies, though adopted in many countries around the world, have been controversial. This paper will test some of the claims made by supporters and critics of the policy, such as whether the policy is needed to increase representation or whether education and mobilization would lead to the inclusion of the previously excluded groups, …

Affirmative Action and Political Representation across Time, Groups and States: Testing Claims for and against with Cases of India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka Read More »

Inequality and discrimination are vexed problems in societies aspiring for an egalitarian social order through democratic processes under rule of law.  A variety of affirmative action strategies including preferential discrimination in favour of marginalised people, reservation of seats in education and employment and equalizing opportunities through socio-economic planning are employed by countries which advanced the …

Equalizing Opportunities: Case for an Equal Opportunity Commission Read More »

The larger objective of the paper is to consider how inequality is produced and how affirmative measures are being taken in Nepal over the years and the prospects for affirmative action as a strategy for addressing inequality in Nepal. Particularly, this paper explores the nature of the respective preferential policy/reservation packages of the government, political …

Inequality and Affirmative Action in Nepal: Issues and Challenges Read More »

We can draw a significant lesson from the manner in which affirmative action policies in India have been conceptualized and implemented. The notion of compensation on grounds of ‘harm done’ or brute luck, is simply inadequate, if it is left to stand on its own. Though the general feeling at the time of forging the …

Locating Affirmative Action in the Concept of Equality Read More »