Rearchitecting Indian Government : Gov 2.0

An appropriate architecture of government can make a very big impact on the people’s lives and progress. It is important to realise that government architecture ought to be dynamic and not frozen in time. Each country must discover what is appropriate for its people; there is no perfect system that can be cited.

The constitutions of most countries, in 120 out of 192 countries which are supposedly democracies, envisage three pillars of governments that are - legislature, executive & judiciary. The constitution defines the underlying principles & policies to be followed by the government and checks and balances between the arms of the government, a construct that is based on the principle of separation of powers. Democracy is supposed to be the last form of government. There are dozens of forms of government and many countries have experienced multiple forms of governments over the period of their existence. Depending upon the size of the country, there exist multiple levels, for e.g. national, state, district and local.  

The characteristics of the government at each level differ. This structure is totally archaic in all countries. The situation in India is described below; however, the case for delayering and downsizing governments is applicable universally. Delayering and "de-federating" are needed in government organizations and there are any number of commissions and task forces working on creating recommendatory reports. However, there is virtually nil discussion on delayering or eliminating the federal structure so as to cut the number of political positions. 

Does federal structure make the system more democratic - do people get more voice or the politicians do? More political positions does not mean more democracy. Likewise if you have to elect fewer people it does not mean you live in a system which is less democratic. 

Local bodies (elected) - panchayats constituted of five 'panchs' who are elected from a single village or a set of smaller villages; municipalities constituted of corporators who are elected from wards of the city or township

District officers (executive & judicial)

State government, bodies; legislature (elected), departments (executive) & courts (judicial)

National government, bodies; legislature (elected & nominated), departments (executive) & courts (judicial)

The term of elected representatives is of 5 years (in other countries term varies, US congressman has the shortest term of 2 years). Elected representatives are "politicians". In India, their service terms have no performance appraisal or incentives, political parties may themselves apply their respective appraisal systems. What programs they are pursuing or supporting is not known to public. There is seldom any referendum in any country on policy issues, exception being Switzerland.

The idea of the above structure is few hundred years old. It originated in Europe, though the practice of democracy originated in ancient Greece, Mesopotamia and ancient India couple of thousand years ago. All big governments are still having structures that were formed when neither planes nor telecommunications existed - of course electronic media, IT and Internet were not even conceived. UK or England had the smartest systems experts and architects for designing government structures. Brits tweaked their systems to suit their local requirements as a colonial power, in different countries round the globe. They implemented their systems so well that for generations, after the colonies gained independence, people have continued to live by those very systems without question. The slavery to habit (tradition) is a force that requires more than education to counter or effect changes. In context of innovations in laws, it requires legislators who are educated, systems experts, communicators and hard-working, all at the same time. Such combination of virtues to find amongst legislators is rare.  Nevertheless it is worth discussing a new version of government and building a popular consensus so future legislators can follow the popular demands for change.

What changes can and should be done in architecting Government 2.0 ?

The middle layers of executive and elected people [state & district] can be entirely eliminated and many departments that remain can be dissolved or reconstituted for larger domains, of geographical and functional areas, for greater effectiveness and also efficiency. Panchayats & Municipalities in Gov2 will get greater powers & national government will formulate and execute all policies with much fewer staff members and layers of hierarchies. Executive will also become stronger - and subjected to strict appraisal systems.

The motivation for the new construct is to make democracy work better & nation stronger by diluting divisive forces that discriminate on basis of language and caste or “culture”. We should aim for direct democracy more and representative democracy less. The new construct will make differences in the way the laws ought to be made – the extent of public access and influence over resource allocations and usage – the level of transparency. It will make govt. much leaner & smarter, i.e. more effective and more efficient.

In Gov2 there is no encouragement to parochial sentiments - which result in demands for fragmentation of states and societies or reservations based on languages, castes or "culture". Private enterprise, entrepreneurial traits would receive support, encouragement and respect. National chauvinism would be considered passé and global cooperation would be the norm and regarded as one's duty. People will be guided more by similarities between them rather than differences between them.

The electoral reforms and anti-corruption discussion should come after understanding and voting on the above reforms! Otherwise it would be like opting for a patch work when we actually need a complete rewrite of the program that has too many bugs and that has outlived its usefulness by decades, if not a century.

Referendum is a powerful instrument of democracy that can be used for resolving national as well as regional issues based on residence in different geographical regions. In Gov2 this will be online, therefore, multiple options, multiple issues could be taken up in periodic or frequent referendums. People will decide which subject areas will be usually legislated by elected representatives, by bringing a bill to the parliament, and which shall be decided through referendum. 

Political parties may declare those issues for which they will opt for referendum and those on which they have already taken a position - these will make the election manifesto of contestants meaningful. The number of MPs may be increased - in Gov2 they would be really called upon to work - they will work in the national interest but would be more actively engaged with meeting the needs of their constituencies. The citizen in Gov2 will feel more empowered. The Gov2 programs will be published on the web with targeted and achieved outcomes updated regularly. The planned allocations, pricing etc. will all be handled with complete transparency and participation of citizens or factoring their opinions, wherever possible or of the opinions of their elected representatives.

UK, a unitary state and a constitutional monarchy, has no state governments – they have just two levels – national government which makes all national policies, represented by parliament and local governments (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales are four constituent "countries"). UK has 650 MPs for a population of under 70 million. US is a federal union with each state having its own constitution - so they have huge number of politicians.

India can do with 1300 MPs, roughly one MP for every one million population. There will be about 5000 municipalities, one for each town (larger ones are called Municipal Corporations) and 150K to 200K panchayats for 600K villages. Corporators and “Panchs” will be elected and so will be MPs. There will be no other politicians. Each Municipality and Panchayat will have a website with published programs and outcomes expected. All accounts will be publicly accessible, at high level of aggregation. Through RTI, details can be sought by any citizen.

With the reduced count of politicians and bureaucrats in a flat government with just two layers (central government and the local government ONLY), enabled with ICT and proper systems, more coherent policies and speedier implementation will result. People's voices will become stronger and stand a better chance to get translated into action.

Discussions are invited on what will happen with Gov2.0 structure envisaged above?