Explain with examples why some laws that seek to ban something are not very successful in politics.
Law has an important role to play in political reform. Any legal change must carefully look at what results it will have on politics. Sometimes, the result may be counter productive. For example; many states have banned people who have more than two children from contesting panchayat elections.
- This has resulted in denial of democratic opportunity to many poor and women.
- Laws that give political actors incentives to do good things have more chances of working. The best laws are those, which empower people to carry- out democratic reforms.
- The Right to Information Act is a good example of law that empowers the people to find out what is happening in government.
- Such a law helps to control corruption and supplements the existing laws that banned corruption and imposed strict penalties.