6 SOCIAL SCIENTIST Stokke and Mohan discuss the ideological responses to the concept of social capital and analyse the apparent agreement over importance of civil society in the process of development between the revisionist neo-liberal institutions and certain sections of the left. This agreement overlooks an important difference between the neo-liberal and the so-called post-Marxist approach towards understanding the position and role of civil society. By the neo-liberal logic, the civil society is a space outside the purview of the state and political intervention where only free markets define the rules of the game. On the other hand, the post-Marxist approach identifies the civil society as an arena of social mobilisation. Notwithstanding this difference, the apparent consensus on the importance of civil society and local organisations dangerously undermines the importance of the state and goes to further the neo-liberal agenda of hegemony of the markets. Meanwhile, Tornquist argues that the experience ofPPC underlies the need for greater political intervention to "facilitate democratic coordination" between the centralised state, the local government and the civil society. A greater political intervention is imperative in his opinion in a context where the civil society is fragmented by privatisation and commercialisation. Raj an Gurukkal emphasises the political aspect of decentralisation in the context of PPC in Kerala. He cautions against the danger of PPC becoming an apolitical movement for administrative reforms. Decentralisation must be understood as a space for struggle of conflicting interests. Gurukkal points out that while on one hand the administrative changes brought about as part of decentralisation and devolution has been constantly impeded by political conflicts, there is, as yet very little sign of any structural change and substantive political empowerment of the masses. With this caveat, however, even the modest changes brought about by decentralisation are "widely welcomed as a campaign for strengthening local government in Kerala." This collection embodies only a minor portion of the ideas and perspectives discussed at the International Seminar on Democratic Decentralisation. Nevertheless, these papers represent an important segment both with regard to the dynamics of the whole seminar as well as the concerns expressed therein. It brings out not only some of the important aspects of the PPC as it is implemented in Kerala but also the important role it plays in the general fabric of people's struggle in resistance to a homogenising culture of globalisation.