Srinagar, Aug. 9 -- John Dewey argued, nearly a century ago, that democracy is not primarily a system of government. It is a form of associated life, practised daily, not activated once every five years and left dormant in between. On his account, democracy lives in habits: in the ongoing willingness of citizens and their representatives to communicate, adjust, and answer to one another, continuously, not only at the ballot box.

That distinction should shape everything else. A mandate, properly understood, is not a five-year contract, banked at one election and cashed out at leisure until the next. It is a daily obligation. It should show in how a government treats the electorate's aspirations between elections. It should show in how pol...