Social Audit for Political Parties.

Abstract

The authors, through this paper propose an independent agency conducting social audit of political parties. A social audit is used to monitor, evaluate appraise and measure social performance with respect to its social programs and social objectives. We propose that parties undertake a social audit of their policies, ideologies, programs and schemes to understand the impact. A social audit such as this will help understand the impact of a political party's ideology on the people of different social, economic, cultural and religious backgrounds. For the party, utilizing a social audit report can pin point on which areas and what target audiences are best suited for the party's ideology. Social audit benefits the public at large in evaluating the political parties and their actions. Social audit is also beneficial to political parties. Conducting and evaluating a social audit report can provide a political party with empirical data which can help them understand the public expectations and demands. Social auditing also ensures transparency in the functioning of the parties. Social audit reports will help in increasing awareness amongst the masses. Social audit report can help educate the voters as to the activities carried out by the political party in a specific year. Social audit helps review public perceptions. One probable limitation could be low acceptance of findings of the social audit report among the political parties and hindrance in implementation of such a proposal due to lack of political will. In this paper the authors have discussed the parameters, benefits, and limitations of conducting social audit of political parties, along with how such a practice can be put to use in the best possible manner in a country like India.