Substantive democracy in a caste society requires deliberately equalizing the value of devalued citizens

Evidence

At the heart of Ambedkar’s approach to democracy was the question of how to ensure that all minorities—especially, but not only, the Untouchables—could successfully bargain for adequate protections. Democracy, in theory, was premised on the idea of ‘one person, one value’ and hence ‘one person, one vote’. But Untouchables, treated as lesser humans, were not accorded the same value as Touchables. To make democracy substantive in a caste-differentiated society, therefore, it required modification. In such a redesigned democracy, the value of a devalued Untouchable had to be deliberately raised through special provisions such as the double vote or the adoption of the principle of reservation, or both. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1321

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Ambedkar’s principle that formal one-person-one-vote democracy must be redesigned to raise the value of devalued Untouchables.
• XREF: connects to: Democracy must be deliberately cultivated rather than assumed natural. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 16; Extreme wealth inequality makes common legislation impossible in a democracy — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 363; Deliberative democracy fails without material equality among participants — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 522 (+1 more)