DIALECTICS OF DECENTRALISATION 39 local power has been contained through land reform in Kerala, and the rights of less 'resource-full5 people have been secured - by the state, of course - to a much greater extent than they have been elsewhere in the country. Only time will tell whether Kerala's experiment with democratic decentralisation will yield the sorts of results in terms of production and productivity which E M S Namboodiripad sought. But there is no doubt that it has increased 'participation', in the sense that it has involved more people in decision-making about matters of public concern. What is especially remarkable about it is the way in which planning has been used as a means of encouraging participation and social mobilisation. Perhaps it has drawn on existing 'social capital' in neighbourhoods and communities (which might help to account for some of the differences that have appeared between parts of the state). Equally arguably it has been responsible for 'constructing social capital', and because of this, through the way in which it has drawn people in to what are clearly 'civic endeavours', it has 'consolidated civil society'. But it has all taken place in the context of a political process in which different groups of actors at different social levels are all involved, not by 'constructing-social capital-as-local-organisations' and thereby 'consolidating civil society' in place of politically directed state action. The Kerala story constitutes a powerful statement, therefore, against the currently fashionable ideas about 'social capital' and 'civil society' which have been the subject of this paper. Isaac and Franke write: 'The role of political society in both the state-centred and/or civil-society-led paradigms explaining the decentralization process, is conspicuous by its absence ...But in a situation such as Kerala's, which is characterised by an active political society with hegemonic positions held by Left political formations, political society holds the key to democratic decentralization'. Here it is not the 'social capital' which lies in the congeries of voluntary associations highlighted by Robert Putnam - including choirs, bowling leagues, football teams and the like - which counts, but rather powerful class and mass organizations (which in Kerala encompass nearly one third of the adult population). The People's Campaign has involved public action, and the interplay between government and people's organisations, in the context of a political process. The same - pace Putnam - may well have held in Italy, where the PCI fostered civic engagement, and it is likely to hold elsewhere, too.