By Conrad Pinto : Been familiar with political theory? Students of arts (or as it is called down south in Kerala, humanities), would know what I am talking about, and so would many more. But, for the ones who don’t have a clue about what I’m talking about, the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines political theory as “a theory having to do with the political relationships among men.” In ordinary words, political theory is how people interact with one another politically on the political battleground, and how they mend their ways to bring certain issues into their favour.
Our country is made up of a majority of middle class citizens, and as the saying goes, ‘India is a country of villages,’ this is to land as ‘India is a country of middle-class citizenry,’ is to the population. India is indeed a majority of the middle-class. Estimates say that the middle class population stands at around 50-million to the total population of 1.21-billion as per the 2011 census. The middle-class, of which most come from a school of thought who think lowly of politicians and the government, do not support politicians under the banner of clear development. Thus, an intensifying need for manipulative political behavior arises amongst politicians, leading to the study of political theory.
The general elections of Uttar Pradesh in 2007 saw the re-election of Mayawati as the Chief Minister. It was way back in the 1990s when the country saw the first Dalit and youngest Chief Minister in Mayawati. Immediately, the hugely politicized speeches and people sharing a bond with her on basis of their caste started seeing her become popular and made her a heroine for the Dalits. The Dalits aspired for development, as we see it – economic development, and had their hopes vested in her. The reason for this, as noted before – her caste and her politicized speeches that fired outrage in the Dalits towards her non-Dalit adversaries. People had their blind trust in her, which was only based on her words and not her deeds.
Economics, on the other hand, has a different domain altogether. It is usually confused by the common people (or as they are branded in the U.S., as the rednecks). ‘Economics is in fact, a study of the management of resources, and aims at optimizing their utility’. The study of economics cannot be easily manipulated if the above definition is followed carefully as a guideline.
Economics, hence, aims at achieving this goal of optimal use of resources. Political theory, on the other end, influences individuals to gain political momentum by deviating resources from their optimal use and putting them to popularist use, which gains attention of the electorate, and puts them to power. For eg, we may notice the same things done with the Rs. 685-crore Ambedkar Park built at Noida, U.P. during the Mayawati Regime to gain appraisal for herself, or the Rs. 500-crore Suvarna Vidhana Soudha built at Belgaum, Karnataka to gain political stability in the region. What was the worth of these structures? Only time will tell. But was it of a political-motive or was it of an economic-motive? We all know that by now.