Directive Principles and the Expressive Accommodation of Ideological Dissenters in the Indian Constitution
This presentation will argue, using India as a case study, that constitutional directives can be a useful tool for the expressive accommodation of ideological dissenters who would otherwise lose out in constitutional negotiations in deeply divided societies. The strategy of expressive accommodation was tempered in the Indian case through containment and constitutional incrementalism. A calibrated expressive accommodation of ideological dissenters can give them enough (and genuine) hope of future victories to keep them on board, without going so far that the majority rejects the accommodation or their ideological opponents in turn leave the constitutional negotiation table. By focussing on the accommodational needs of ideological dissenters, this paper adds to existing literature on constitutional consensus-building techniques, which has largely focussed on political insurance for ethnocultural minorities.

The paper on which this talk is based can be accessed at tinyurl.com/DirectivePrinciples.
Date: 17 January 2017, 14:00 (Tuesday, 1st week, Hilary 2017)
Venue: St Antony's College, 62 Woodstock Road OX2 6JF
Venue Details: Fellows' Dining Room
Speaker: Dr Tarunabh Khaitan (Wadham)
Organising department: Asian Studies Centre
Organiser: Dr Faisal Devji (St Antony's)
Organiser contact email address: asian@sant.ox.ac.uk
Booking required?: Not required
Cost: None
Audience: Public
Editor: Maxime Dargaud-Fons