Government Advertising: Exploring International Best Practices on Regulating Partisan Publicity by Incumbent Governments

Abstract

This short paper explores certain legal issues and international best practices on regulating partisan publicity by incumbent governments: an issue that attracted the attention of the Supreme Court in India recently and has led to the setting up of a committee to make recommendations to the Supreme Court. The paper also contains a basic outline of the choices and tensions — both legal as well as public policy-related — that may have to be necessarily addressed while evolving policy guidance on the subject in India: principles that could perhaps be applied to other developing and developed country situations as well.