Working of Institutions Class 9 Notes

OVERVIEW

Democracy is not just about people electing their rulers. in a democracy the rulers have to follow some rules and procedures. They have to work with and within institutions. This chapter is about the working of such institution sin a democracy. We try to understand this by looking at the manner in which major decisions are taken and implemented in our country. We also look at  how disputes regarding these decisions are resolved. In this process we come acrosee three institutions that play a key role in major decisions – legislature, executive and judiciary.

You have already read something about these institutions in earlier classes. Here we shall quickly summarise those and move one to asking larger questions. in the case of each institution we ask: What does this institution do? How is this institution connected to other institutions? What makes its functioning more or less democratic? The basic objective here is ot understand how all these instiutions together carry on the work of government. Sometimes we compare these with similar instutions in other democracies. in this chapter we take our examples from the working of the national level government called Central Government, Union Government, or just Government of inida. While reading this chapter, you can think of and discuss exmaples form the working of the government in your state.

5.1 HOW IS A MAJOR POLICY DECISION TAKEN?

A GOVERNMENT ORDER

On August 13, 1990, the Government of India issued an order, It was called an Office Memorandum. Like all government orders, it had a number and is known by that: O.M. No. 26012/31/90-Est ((SCT), dated 13.8.1990. The Joint Secretary, an officer in the Department of Personnel and Training in the Ministry of personnel. public Grievances and Pensions, signed the Order, it was quite short, barely one page. it looked like any ordinary circular or notice that you may have seen in school. The government issues hundreds of orders every day on different matters. But this one was very important and vecame a source of controversy for several years. Let us see how the decision was taken and what happened later.

original order. It said that well-to-do persons among the backward classes should be excluded from getting the benefit of reservation. Accordingly, the Department of Personnel and Training issued another Office Memorandum on Septembre 8, 1993. The dispute thus came to an end and this policy has been followed since then.

NEED FOR POLITICAL INSTITUTION

We have seen one example of how the government works. Governing a country involves various such activities. For example, the government is responsible for ensuring security to the citizens and providing facilities for education and health toall. it collects taxes abd soends the money thus raised on administration, defence and development programmes. It formulates and implements several welfare schemes. Some persones have to take decisions on how to go about these activities. Others have to impleenment these decisions. If disputes arise on these decisions or in their implementation, there should be some one to determine what is right and what is wrong. it is important that everyone should know who is responsible for doing what. It is also important that these activities keep taking place even if activities keep taking place even if the persons in key positions change.

So, to attend to all these tasks, several arrangements are made in all modern democracies. Such arrangements are called institutions. A democracy works well when these institutions perform functions assigned to them. The constitution of any country lays down basic rules on the powers and functions of each institution. In the example above we saw several such institutions at work.

The Prime Minister and the Cabinet are institutions that take all important policy decisions.

The Civil Servants, working together, are responsible for taking steps to implement the minsters’ decisions.

Supreme Court is an institution where disputes between citizens and the government are finally settled.

Can you think of some other institutions in this example? What is their role?

Working with institutions is not easy. Institutions involve rules and regulations. This can bind the hands of leaders. Institutions involve meetings, committees and routines. This often leads to delays and complications. Therefore dealing with institutions can be frustrating. One might feel that it is much better to have one person take all decisions without any rules, procedures and meetings. But that is not the spirit of democracy. Some of the delays and complications introduced by institutions are very useful. They provide an opportunity for a wider set of people to be consulted in any decision. Institutions make it difficult to have a good decision taken very quickly. but they also make it equally difficult to rush through a bad decision. That is why democratic governments  insist on institutions.