Humanizing Power

Book excerpt: The book discusses Dr Ambedkar`s philosophical intervention on power for reclaiming human dignity and locates its significance for making a constructive contribution to the existing theories and concepts of power. Dr B R Ambedkar proposed a rational-legal approach to usher in a balance of power among political institutions under the framework of political democracy through checks and balances – constitutionalising the state structure. However, he was not satisfied with this formal mechanism for ensuring a check on the excesses of power. What he believed in was to usher in the balance of power among the social groups at the societal level to the formal distribution of power under political democracy. For him, this formal balance of power under political democracy would not be effective without the balance of power in the society – constitutionalising the social framework. The book explores the conceptual and philosophical moorings of the relationship between the consolidation of social democracy as propounded by Dr Ambedkar and the democratisation of political power and its deployment for human progress.