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Political parties have proliferated in India since the 1980s. A marked feature of the growth of parties has been the competitiveness of regional parties. Political entrepreneurs have broken away from established parties and formed separate parties that have competed at both state and national levels of the Indian political system. A few of the newly formed parties became strong competitors in their home units, sometimes leading state governments, demonstrating that they were large parties in their own region. A larger number of regional parties won representation in the Lok Sabha after 1989, but most of these newer parties, and some of the older ones, remained small. In the context of coalition politics many small parties were welcomed into national coalitions. Yet a lack of Assembly seats usually resulted in small parties being excluded from government at the state level. This article develops a typology that distinguishes small parties, active in national and state elections, from the larger regional parties and the hundreds of smaller parties registered with the Election Commission. The wider significance of the small parties is assessed in relation to party system change and the everyday conduct of politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the first time in 30 years, a single national party has won a majority on its own in the Indian parliament, and does not depend on the support of regional party allies for a parliamentary majority. Yet it is too soon to pronounce the decline or marginalisation of regional parties in India's national political life. The aggregate performance of regional parties remained resilient in the 2014 elections, even marginally improving over 2009. This article considers whether the 2014 elections mark a critical break in the position of regional parties at the national level. The principal argument is that the 2014 elections do not reflect a fundamental alteration in the dynamics of political regionalisation. Rather they suggest a new phase in the impact of regionalisation on the party system at the national level. In a landscape of continually increasing voter choice, electoral outcomes at the national level have begun to narrow to favour a smaller range of parties since 2004. The number of parties able to achieve influence via participation in cabinet governance or coalition has begun to decline. Political fragmentation has not gone away, but its consequences for election outcomes have changed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2014 election campaign of the BJP was unprecedented not only because, for the first time, a Chief Minister was the prime ministerial candidate of one of the national parties in the fray and tried to promote his state achievements in terms of development across the nation, but also because the party relied on the personality of its leader more than any other party since the Congress under Indira Gandhi. Narendra Modi broke with the BJP's collegial tradition in several ways. He marginalised party veterans, short circuited the BJP apparatus to use a parallel support structure, and resorted to new techniques of communication that saturated the public space. However, these innovations were superimposed on older themes which had sometimes not been used by the BJP itself before, but by others – like caste politics or corruption. Modi's BJP also fell back on some alliances with other parties, the old RSS network, and revisited Hindutva politics to such an extent that ‘development' was definitely not the only theme of the Modi campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using constituency-level data, the article examines the BJP's vote swing at the State and Constituency level in India. Drawing on theories of electoral realignment, I examine the BJP's performance at the constituency level and investigate the extent to which the party drew voters from other parties (particularly Congress), mobilised new voters (via increased turnout), and appealed to the newly enfranchised (via increases in the size of the electoral roll). The results of the analysis show that the key to the BJP's success was its ability to mobilise new voters in places where it had previously not fared so well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do some governments prioritize policies that are welfare-improving for many citizens while others concentrate state resources on improving the lot of only a few individuals? Existing research focuses on institutional factors such as regime type and the structure of party systems, but is largely silent on the role of political participation in shaping governments' spending priorities. This paper leverages variation in turnout across Indian state assembly elections from 1967 to 2004 to identify the conditions under which participation matters for government spending. We find that turnout matters in fragmented party systems but has little impact in states characterized by two-party competition. This result has important implications for theories of democratic politics and public good provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the assembly elections looming on the horizon, the political landscape of Punjab is getting more complex with each passing day, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) remains the main protagonist in the ongoing theatrical mode of politics, so typical of the state. The question in the minds of election analysts is whether a four-year-old party facing two of the oldest surviving parties in India will be able to bring about a critical shift in the bipolar party system well established in the state since the 1997 elections. Punjab for long has been reeling under endemic crises in the form of agrarian distress, drug menace, crony capitalism, corruption and an overall governance deficit. Arguably then, any significant electoral gain for the AAP in the 2017 elections, as in the case of the 2014 parliamentary elections, would signify the desperation of the electorate with the firm grip of the Congress and Akali Dal over the levers of power. This explains why despite being a party lacking in terms of state-wide organizational presence, state-specific agenda or state-level leadership, the AAP as a self-proclaimed movement party, committed to clean and principled politics, with politically novice but apparently well-meaning candidates, has been able to raise hop e among the wider electorate across the state's three electoral regions. However, since 2014, as the paper discusses in detail, the party has had a checkered inning in the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the Communist Party of India (CPI Maoist) and its campaign of opposition against neoliberalism to advance a New Democratic Revolution by means of armed revolutionary struggle. Topics discussed include the party's political objectives, areas in India with substantial political influence, intellectual and social origins of the party. Also discussed are the reasons ordinary people participate in the Maoist movement and the expansion of the movement.

This study of political tolerance in India reveals a positive correlation between such tolerance and membership in political parties and unions, and living in urban areas. Surprisingly, the study finds no difference in the levels of political tolerance between BJP and Congress (I) supporters, and no connection with education levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the use of material appeals for voter support using evidence taken from the case of the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Two types of material appeal co-exist in this case. Clientelist politics, in the form of vote buying, and the distribution of public resources as political patronage, are features of state politics. Parties also use programmatic policies which offer benefits to beneficiaries regardless of partisan affiliation. The provision of such universal benefits has expanded since 2006. Yet the interest in universal provision significantly pre-dates 2006 and can be traced back to elite policy preferences in the early 1980s. The article shows that competition within a clientelist political system need not lead to the intensification of clientelism. Political parties may dilute their clientelist strategy by the addition of some programmatic policies. The wider implication of this study is that future research on material appeals should pay more attention to parties and party systems as causal variables. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ethnic quotas are often expected to induce distribution of material benefits to members of disadvantaged groups. Yet, the presence of an ethnic quota does not imply that political mobilization takes place along ethnic lines: Cross-cutting affiliations within multi-ethnic party organizations may lessen the tendency of politicians to target benefits to particular ethnic groups. In this article, we evaluate the impact of quotas for the presidencies of village councils in India, a subject of considerable recent research. Drawing on fine-grained information from surveys of voters, council members, presidents, and bureaucrats and using a natural experiment to isolate the effects of quotas in the states of Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Bihar, we find weak distributive effects of quotas for marginalized castes and tribes, but suggestive evidence of the importance of partisanship. We then use survey experiments to compare the influence of party and caste on voting preferences and expectations of benefit receipt. Our results suggest that especially when politicians have dynamic political incentives to allocate benefits along party lines, cross-cutting partisan ties can blunt the distributive impact of ethnic quotas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Why do party systems in longstanding democracies sometimes experience sudden change? Neither sociological nor institutional explanations can account for the swift increase in support for regional political parties in India in the 1990s. Instead, the shift from single-party majority to coalition government explains the rise of regional parties. The advent of coalition government increased the incentives associated with joining and establishing regional parties, prompting many already popular politicians to leave their national parties and take their supporters with them as they formed new regional parties in the 1990s. This finding reverses the causal arrow that usually links party systems and coalition government and illustrates how noninstitutional elements of the political context can determine elite incentives and thereby shape party systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to explain the apparently exceptional pattern of coalition politics in India compared to international patterns – the prevalence of minority governments and among them, minority coalitions, among non-single party majority governments, as well as the predominance of very large coalitions of 6–12 parties – in the light of theorising on coalition and minority governments and the specificities of India's political institutions. It shows that there are two general and three specific circumstances that favour such a pattern and that most of these have been present at government formation since 1989, and particularly since 1996. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article argues that the results of the Indian General Elections, 2009, emphasize continuity more than change. Regional political parties, local-level issues and identity-based politics remain significant. The verdict represents a confirmation of established patterns of electoral politics in India and not a break with the recent past. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the important role of the increased regionalization to the victory of the Congress Party during the 2009 general elections in India. It states that the regionalization of politics help the party to win in three distinct ways such as the newly created local or regional parties, a clear indicator of increasing fragmentation of Indian politics, from the good performance of its regional allies and the rise of regional parties including its United Progressive Alliance (UPA) allies. It mentions that the success of the party is due to its popular public policies.

Interactions between ruling and opposition parties in India have long been sorely neglected by political analysts. This study finds clear contrasts between interactions at national and state levels in this federal system, and further, often marked variations across the 28 states - each of which has its own Westminster-style legislature. Government-opposition relations range from semi-civilized to caustic, although most cases are situated some at distance from those extremes. So, despite a recent confrontation in the Indian Parliament, there are no strong trends towards either deterioration or greater accommodation. This is a study in ambiguity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the interactions of power as analysed through the formulation story of a recently enacted social policy, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), India. It explains the various drivers that led to the passing of this policy, with a view to analysing the extent and nature of power as was played out in the making of this policy. The paper sets out the way in which social policy formulation can be understood to be arising from interactions and linkages between individual actors, who together make up policy coalitions and networks. These interactions are described through a four-fold classification of processes (parliamentary, executive, party political and civil society) into which the actions and contributions of these actors feed, giving rise to an iterative, messy and complex reality. Power in the policy formulation network is shown as multi-sited as well as relational. The paper concludes with an endorsement for reconfiguring the geographies of power in the form of a kaleidoscope of actors and events, within and through which power flows and is exercised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article seeks to explain the resilience of India's democracy in terms of the persistence of significant legislative output and policy continuity despite noisy adversarial politics. The article analyses this argument on the basis of a comparison of two different national regimes - one by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government (NDA), 1999-2004, and the other by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), 2004-2009. Despite their rather different approaches to citizenship - the former, based on Hindu nationalism, and the latter, a more inclusive, 'secular' conception of citizenship - there is considerable convergence in legislative regimes, institutions to safeguard the interest of minorities and public subsidy for the Haj pilgrimage. Turning subjects into citizens - no doubt with a sharp eye to their electoral potential - has become accepted practice by both competing coalitions. Despite its occasional breakdown, the paradoxical juxtaposition of adversarial politics and policy continuity is achieved because of the existence of a broad inter-party consensus on one coherent and meaningful citizenship regime and the high trust in which mediating institutions like the Supreme Court and the Election Commission are held. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) as a major regional party in Odisha provides a window of oppoitunity to assess the political trend in the state in the latter half of the 1990s. The state electorate has largely favoured regional parties, both in the Lok Sabha and in the assembly elections. This paper attempts to locate the thirteen years old party the Biju Janata Dal within the broader framework of Odishas electoral politics and it seeks to locus on the emergence of the BJD, its electoral success, social base, ideology, leadership, orgnisation style and its future prospects. Finally, the paper examines the future prospects of the BJD party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to provide structural and functional aspects of the political parties in India and the United States that operate under their own peculiar democratic traditions, social mores and political ethos prevalent in two countries. India has a parliamentary form of government while US is a federal polity, hence these differences impact on the political parties of the two countries because in the United States there prevails a two-patty system and in India there is a multi-party system. Political parties in US have loose organizational structures while national political patties in India possess well-knit organizational set-up from national to district and even village level. It also highlights the presence of special interest groups in the United States which seek to curry favours from political pasties, while such groups have yet to make their presence felt in India. While asserting that there are more differences than commonalities between the Indian and Americal political parties, a plea is made for increased interaction between the political parties of the two countries for mutual advantage and strengthening the democratic institutions in other parts of the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While women constitute neatly half of the electorate in India, their representation in elected bodies including the two houses of parliament has always been negligible. Woman candidates have to struggle against great odds, no matter to which party they belong. The old political norms of the Gandhian era have been totally discarded by now, and women find themselves at a great disadvantage in this cut-throat political atmosphere. The low representation given to them by the various political parties on their lists of candidates for the elections to the parliament and state assemblies is not merely an indicator of their inferior political status but reveals their subordinate position in a society and refusal to recognize their right and ability to participate in the nation's development activities. The recent trends in electoral processes in the country reflects the poor status of Indian women in terms of their political participation. Data indicates that the elected women to the parliament in India form barely 10 percept of the total seats, although women form 50 percent of the total population. A sole women n a legislative body or only a few have difficulty being heard. If this percentage could rise to 25 to 30 percent or above, they could intervene and benefit from support of women colleagues in what has been up till this time, a male-dominated body. The object of this paper is to highlight the fact that the numerical strength of women in decision making bodies poses serious problems. Women are strictly a very small minority group in elected bodies and consequently, in course of time they become the silent minority. This is a universal phenomenon, as mostly women all over the world feel "loneliness", "normalness" and "isolation" in political life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overt acquisition of nuclear weapons capacity by India and Pakistan in May 1998 signalled a tectonic shift in the nature of subcontinental conflicts. India’s military superiority in the region and its strategic depth got considerably weakened due to Pakistan’s attainment of strategic parity vis-à-vis India. In the wake of overt nuclearisation, the logic of nuclear deterrence in subcontinental security dynamics was also questioned because of continued security instability, evident in instances like the military impasse of 2001–2002. Hence, the subject of nuclearisation of subcontinental security began to capture wider spaces in the political debates in India. This strategic decision, having been taken by a coalition government, imparted enormous complexities to the domestic political exchanges over the security dynamics of the subcontinent. It also drastically transformed the nature and content of India’s domestic politics, as it brought strategic issues and foreign policy agenda of the government into the political parlance of the common people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates voting behavior in India. The central focus of the article is the author's investigation of how Indian voters cast their ballots if they perceive little chance of parliamentary victory on the part of their preferred political party. Also under examination is the degree to which education influences Indian voting and the voting patterns of Indian Muslims. It is noted that the article's conclusions are based on information culled from a survey of the 2004 national elections.

Elections to the state legislature are as important as the elections to the union parliament. It has been argued that our very understanding of the Indian political system depends upon our assessment of patterns of development within the constituent states as India, a federal system containing 28 states. In this way, to analyse the elections in Punjab is very important. Punjab occupies a place of critical importance in Indian politics in many respects. This paper is a modest attempt to analyse the 2007 elections to Punjab Legislative Assembly. It has been divided into five parts. The first deals with the historical perspective, the second with the strategies adopted by the political parties during the 2007 Assembly elections, the third with the electoral outcome, the fourth with the challenges before the coalition government, and the last with the conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an exploration into the conditions of India as of 2008, discussing latent challenges within its political, economic, and social policies and their impact on India's ability as a major geopolitical power influence. Issues discussed include the poverty rate, political factionalism, Islamic terrorism, and foreign relations with Pakistan.

The nature and dynamics of the party system in India are unique. Indian politics represents the spectacle of a multiparty system on the surface; but for long periods of modern India's electoral history, it has been characterized by " one dominant party system" with congress occupying the center stage. Since 1970s Indian party system has become highly competitive both at the center as well as in the states. This competitiveness has significantly made the political parties to move from the stage of "fluidity" during the early years to that of a structural consolidation. The bewildering pluralities of political formations and interests have been developed into full-fledged political parties, with unique models of social engineering. A notable feature of the electoral outcomes since 1989 has been the fractured mandate leading to the emergence of hung parliament as well as multi-party coalitions. After analysing the changing profile of the Indian party system, this article makes a prognosis reflecting the end of the era of single party governments in the wake of the formation of multi-party coalitions at the national level and also in several stales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]