The National Bias of India’s First-Past-The-Post System

Pani, Narendar and Banerjee, Debosree and Thomas, Paul (2023) The National Bias of India’s First-Past-The-Post System. Studies in Indian Politics, 11 (1). pp. 49-65.

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Abstract: The relationship between the local and the national in Indian politics has taken a variety of forms, from secessionist tendencies to agitational politics around specific issues. The course of this relationship is typically explored through electoral performance, primarily whether a party wins sufficient seats to form the government. There is much less attention paid to the relationship between votes and seats. This has led to some questions not getting the attention they deserve, particularly whether the first-past-the-post electoral system that India uses is entirely neutral in the dynamic between the local and the national. This article addresses this question by developing a model that captures the effects of the share of the votes of national parties, as well as the concentration of national and local votes, on the performance of national and local parties. The empirical evaluation of this system points to an overall national bias, which is eroded over time by the emergence of regionally dominant local parties.
Item Type: Journal Paper
Subjects: School of Social Sciences > Inequality
Divisions: Schools > Social Sciences
Date Deposited: 17 Oct 2023 05:43
Last Modified: 17 Oct 2023 05:43
Official URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2321...
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    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/23210230231166183
    URI: http://eprints.nias.res.in/id/eprint/2577

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