Parties and the people: India's changing party system and the resilience of democracy

Democratization

Volumn 6, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 123-154

  Mitra, Subrata Kumar ^a   Enskat, Mike ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEMOCRACY; PARTY POLITICS; POLITICAL CHANGE; POLITICAL SYSTEM;

INDIA;

EID: 0032767584     PISSN: 13510347     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13510349908403600     Document Type: Article

References (56)

1. 'A deeply divided society with, supposedly, a mainly majoritarian type of democracy, India nevertheless has been able to maintain its democratic system.' Arend Lijphart, 'The Puzzle of Indian Democracy: A Consociational Interpretation', American Political Science Review, Vol.90, No.2 (1996), pp.258-68. Lijphart describes the institutionalization of a sophisticated system of power-sharing as the main cause for success in maintaining democratic institutions.
2. Both inflation and explosive population growth have been tamed, for example.
3. Myron Weiner, The Indian Paradox: Essays in Indian Politics (New Delhi: Sage, 1989) describes the existence of high levels of political violence and India's ability to maintain a democratic process as a 'puzzling contradiction'. The contradictory aspect of this phenomenon can be partly explained as a fallacy of aggregation because political violence in India is not uniformly distributed across regions. Those that are most afflicted by political insurgency such as Punjab, Kashmir, Nagaland, Assam, Manipur and Mizoram (called 'no-go areas' in Peter Burnell and Peter Calvert, 'The Resilience of Democracy: An Introduction', in this collection (p.5), are also precisely the regions where multi-party democracy has been less successful. This is cushioned by the other regions which are both comparatively free of this form of extreme political violence and enjoy stable, multiparty democracy. Weiner's point still stands because even the regions afflicted by insurgency are not terminally lost to democracy. Following the successful assembly elections of 1996 and 1997, Kashmir and Punjab have gone back to popular multi-party rule.
4. For the specification of the concept of 'informal army rule' and a discussion of the reasons for the absence of an explicit role by the military in India's high politics, see Stephen Cohen, 'The Military and Indian Democracy', in Atul Kohli (ed.), India's Democracy: An Analysis of Changing State-Society Relations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1988), pp.99-143.
5. The Constitution of India provides for temporary suspension of popular rule at the centre as well as in the States in extreme cases when lawful government is no longer possible. On the basis of the authoritarian spell of 1975-77, Powell classified India, along with Sri Lanka, Jamaica and Turkey under 'major suspension of democracy'. G. Bingham Powell, Contemporary Democracies: Participation, Stability and Violence (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982), p.169.
6. President's rule has been imposed about 108 times since independence. Article 356 of the constitution, which is simply a copy of Section 93 of the Government of India Act of 1935, specifiies the conditions under which democratic rule in a single state can be temporarily suspended. Almost every instance of its imposition sparks controversy between the affected state government and the central government in Delhi. Most observers would agree that in many cases this constitutional provision was abused by the centre. Important scope for parliamentary scrutiny can, nevertheles, be found in this constitutional provision. Under Paragraph 3 of Article 356, 'Every Proclamation under this article shall be laid before each House of Parliament and shall cease to operate at the expiration of two months unless before the expiration of that period it has been approved by resolutions of both Houses of Parliament'. For an example of the current debate about the future of this Article, see P.K. Chatterjee, 'Retain Article 356 with Suitable Amendments', Mainstream, Vol. 36, No. 9 (21 Feb. 1998), pp.17-19.
7. The draconian anti-terrorist laws such as TADA and other forms of preventive detention have become a source of restriction on civil liberties.
8. See Robert Dahl, Democracy and its Critics (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989), p.253. See also Burnell and Calvert, 'The Resilience of Democracy', op. cit., especially pp.11 and 25-7.
9. See Robert Dahl, Democracy and its Critics (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989), p.253. See also Burnell and Calvert, 'The Resilience of Democracy', op. cit., especially pp.11 and 25-7.
10. Outside the narrow circle of North American political scientists, India continues to be the subject of a Methodenstreit. Though Lijphart's seminal 'The Puzzle of Indian Democracy' makes no mention of the difficulty of cross-cultural comparison, understanding India in terms of individual interests continues to be a problem for western mass publics where India remains the quintessential example of 'otherness'. Samuel P. Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster; 1996) -discussed, reviewed and translated around the world - is a recent example of the idiosyncratic description of India (and other non-western societies) in terms of civilizations rather than political systems.
11. We can call it the 'Little Buddha' syndrome after the film of the same name. This attitude to India has an historical genealogy in European Orientalist constructions of India, vigorously questioned by Ronald B. Inden, Imagining India (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990).
12. For a succinct analysis of a political culture dominated by 'amoral familism', see Edward Banfield, The Moral Basis of a Backward Society (New York: The Free Press, 1958).
13. The survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews during May-June 1996, in the aftermath of the eleventh Parliamentary Elections. A representative sample of about 10,000 adults was interviewed by trained investigators from the Lokchintan - a group of scholars based at several Indian universities and the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. The 1971 survey was based on a sample of 5,500 persons and conducted by CSDS, Delhi.
14. These assumptions are consistent with those made Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy (New York: Harper & Row, 1957). See Chapter 2, 'Party Motivation and the Function of Government in Society', for the basic models on electoral choice and partisan behaviour. For a discussion of the basic assumptions of individual expected utility maximization, see William Riker and Peter Ordeshook, An Introduction to Positive Political Theory (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1973).
15. These assumptions are consistent with those made Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy (New York: Harper & Row, 1957). See Chapter 2, 'Party Motivation and the Function of Government in Society', for the basic models on electoral choice and partisan behaviour. For a discussion of the basic assumptions of individual expected utility maximization, see William Riker and Peter Ordeshook, An Introduction to Positive Political Theory (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1973).
16. Joseph LaPalombara and Myron Weiner (eds.), 'The Origin and Development of Political Parties', in Joseph LaPalombara and Myron Weiner, Political Parties and Political Development (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1966).
17. Participating in the first general elections after independence were the Communist Party of India which only three years earlier had risen in a violent peasant revolution against the nascent Indian state, as well as the Hindu right-wing party Jan Sangh which had been banned after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu extremist group. This bold gamble on the part of Jawaharlal Nehru appears to have paid rich dividends, by encouraging attitudes favourable to multiparty democracy within these extremist groups.
18. Selig Harrison, India: the Most Dangerous Decades (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1960) was one of the earliest to warn of the dangers of disintegration in India.
19. Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1968) reflects the strong commitment to orderly change, if need be at the cost of political coercion, characteristic of the modernization approach.
20. Gunnar Myrdal, Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, 3 vols. (New York: Pantheon, 1968).
21. Barrington Moore, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1966).
22. See 'The Intellectual History of the Civic Culture Concept', in Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba (eds.), The Civic Culture Revisited (London: Sage, 1989). On issue dimensions and political parties, see Arend Lijphart, Democracies: Patterns of Majoritarian and Consensus Government in Twenty-One Centuries (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 1984), p.130.
23. See 'The Intellectual History of the Civic Culture Concept', in Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba (eds.), The Civic Culture Revisited (London: Sage, 1989). On issue dimensions and political parties, see Arend Lijphart, Democracies: Patterns of Majoritarian and Consensus Government in Twenty-One Centuries (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 1984), p.130.
24. The issue has been debated by a number of authors. See, in particular, Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne H. Rudolph, The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1967); Francine Frankel and M.S.A. Rao (eds.), Dominance and State Power in Modern India: Decline of a Social Order, 2 vols. (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989/90). For detailed analysis of the electoral process, see Subrata K. Mitra and James Chiriyankandath (eds.), Electoral Politics in India: A Changing Landscape (New Delhi: Segment, 1992). D.L. Sheth (ed.), Citizens and Politics: Aspects of Competitive Politics in India (New Delhi: Allied, 1975) is an excellent source for the political sociology of the electoral process. Robert Hardgrave and Stanley Kochanek, India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt, 1993) is a very good source for manifestos and background information. See especially Chapter 6, 'Parties and Politics'.
25. The issue has been debated by a number of authors. See, in particular, Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne H. Rudolph, The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1967); Francine Frankel and M.S.A. Rao (eds.), Dominance and State Power in Modern India: Decline of a Social Order, 2 vols. (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989/90). For detailed analysis of the electoral process, see Subrata K. Mitra and James Chiriyankandath (eds.), Electoral Politics in India: A Changing Landscape (New Delhi: Segment, 1992). D.L. Sheth (ed.), Citizens and Politics: Aspects of Competitive Politics in India (New Delhi: Allied, 1975) is an excellent source for the political sociology of the electoral process. Robert Hardgrave and Stanley Kochanek, India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt, 1993) is a very good source for manifestos and background information. See especially Chapter 6, 'Parties and Politics'.
26. The issue has been debated by a number of authors. See, in particular, Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne H. Rudolph, The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1967); Francine Frankel and M.S.A. Rao (eds.), Dominance and State Power in Modern India: Decline of a Social Order, 2 vols. (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989/90). For detailed analysis of the electoral process, see Subrata K. Mitra and James Chiriyankandath (eds.), Electoral Politics in India: A Changing Landscape (New Delhi: Segment, 1992). D.L. Sheth (ed.), Citizens and Politics: Aspects of Competitive Politics in India (New Delhi: Allied, 1975) is an excellent source for the political sociology of the electoral process. Robert Hardgrave and Stanley Kochanek, India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt, 1993) is a very good source for manifestos and background information. See especially Chapter 6, 'Parties and Politics'.
27. The issue has been debated by a number of authors. See, in particular, Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne H. Rudolph, The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1967); Francine Frankel and M.S.A. Rao (eds.), Dominance and State Power in Modern India: Decline of a Social Order, 2 vols. (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989/90). For detailed analysis of the electoral process, see Subrata K. Mitra and James Chiriyankandath (eds.), Electoral Politics in India: A Changing Landscape (New Delhi: Segment, 1992). D.L. Sheth (ed.), Citizens and Politics: Aspects of Competitive Politics in India (New Delhi: Allied, 1975) is an excellent source for the political sociology of the electoral process. Robert Hardgrave and Stanley Kochanek, India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt, 1993) is a very good source for manifestos and background information. See especially Chapter 6, 'Parties and Politics'.
28. The issue has been debated by a number of authors. See, in particular, Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne H. Rudolph, The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1967); Francine Frankel and M.S.A. Rao (eds.), Dominance and State Power in Modern India: Decline of a Social Order, 2 vols. (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989/90). For detailed analysis of the electoral process, see Subrata K. Mitra and James Chiriyankandath (eds.), Electoral Politics in India: A Changing Landscape (New Delhi: Segment, 1992). D.L. Sheth (ed.), Citizens and Politics: Aspects of Competitive Politics in India (New Delhi: Allied, 1975) is an excellent source for the political sociology of the electoral process. Robert Hardgrave and Stanley Kochanek, India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt, 1993) is a very good source for manifestos and background information. See especially Chapter 6, 'Parties and Politics'.
29. This theme has given rise to a vast literature on the Jajmani system and its steady transformation through the effects of economic change, social reform and political mobilization. The traditional Jajmani system describes a system of social relations in terms of the reciprocal bonds of obligation through which social groups owning land are tied to other social groups on the basis of status, occupations and power. Politically, the social bonds of Jajmani lead to a 'pyramid' of dominance. Politically, the small group of social elites cumulate power, status and wealth, which makes it possible for them to dominate the many others devoid of these resources. Once again, since the bond that thus binds the elite and the non-elite is deeply ingrained, the social pyramid looks like a natural rather than a political construction. Empowered by the principle of universal adult franchise, the relatively powerless bottom of the pyramid quickly learns how to pool their collective voting strength and use it as a political resource. See Frankel and Rao, Dominance and State Power, for regional variations on this main theme.
30. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies, warns about the potential for political decay when participation expands faster than institutionalization.
31. Vertical mobilization refers to political linkages that draw on and reinforce social and economic dominance. Horizontal mobilization takes place when people situated at the same social and economic level get together to use their combined political strength to improve their situation. Differential mobilization refers to coalitions that cut across social strata. See Rudolph and Rudolph, The Modernity of Tradition.
32. For the formulation of these ideas in terms of an analytical framework on elections and social change in India based on a model of electoral norms and organizational structures corresponding to them, see Subrata K. Mitra, 'Caste, Democracy and the Politics of Community Formation in India', in Mary Searle-Chatterjee and Ursula Sharma (eds.), Contextualising Caste: Post-Dumontian Approaches (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994), pp.49-71.
33. For an application of this concept as a framework for the discussion of political participation in India, see Subrata K. Mitra, 'Room to Maneuver in the Middle: Local Elites, Political Action and the State in India', World Politics, Vol.43, No.3 (1991), pp.390-413.
34. For a discussion of this point based on an analysis of local elites in India, see Subrata K. Mitra, Power, Protest, Participation: Local Elites and the Politics of Development in India (London: Routledge, 1992).
35. The concept is discussed at length below. The two most useful references to its functioning are Rajni Kothari, 'The Congress "System" in India', in Asian Survey, Vol.4, No.12 (1964), pp.1162-71, and Rajni Kothari, The Congress System Revisited: A Decennial Review', Asian Survey, Vol.14, No.12 (1974), pp.1035-54.
36. The concept is discussed at length below. The two most useful references to its functioning are Rajni Kothari, 'The Congress "System" in India', in Asian Survey, Vol.4, No.12 (1964), pp.1162-71, and Rajni Kothari, The Congress System Revisited: A Decennial Review', Asian Survey, Vol.14, No.12 (1974), pp.1035-54.
37. The literature on the Congress Party is enormous. See Subrata K. Mitra, 'Party Organization and Policy Making in a Changing Environment: The Indian National Congress', in Kay Lawson (ed.), How Political Parties Work: Perspectives from Within (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994); Mike Shepperdson and Colin Simmons (eds.), The Indian National Congress and the Political Economy of India, 1885-1995 (London: Avebury, 1988); Richard Sisson and Stanley Wolpert (eds.), Congress and Indian Nationalism: The Pre-independence Phase (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988); Ram Joshi and R.K. Hebsur (eds.), Congress in Indian Politics: A Centenary Perspective (Bombay: Popular, 1987); Meenakshi Jain, The Congress Party, 1967-1977: The Role of Caste in Indian Politics (Delhi: Vikash, 1991).
38. The literature on the Congress Party is enormous. See Subrata K. Mitra, 'Party Organization and Policy Making in a Changing Environment: The Indian National Congress', in Kay Lawson (ed.), How Political Parties Work: Perspectives from Within (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994); Mike Shepperdson and Colin Simmons (eds.), The Indian National Congress and the Political Economy of India, 1885-1995 (London: Avebury, 1988); Richard Sisson and Stanley Wolpert (eds.), Congress and Indian Nationalism: The Pre-independence Phase (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988); Ram Joshi and R.K. Hebsur (eds.), Congress in Indian Politics: A Centenary Perspective (Bombay: Popular, 1987); Meenakshi Jain, The Congress Party, 1967-1977: The Role of Caste in Indian Politics (Delhi: Vikash, 1991).
39. The literature on the Congress Party is enormous. See Subrata K. Mitra, 'Party Organization and Policy Making in a Changing Environment: The Indian National Congress', in Kay Lawson (ed.), How Political Parties Work: Perspectives from Within (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994); Mike Shepperdson and Colin Simmons (eds.), The Indian National Congress and the Political Economy of India, 1885-1995 (London: Avebury, 1988); Richard Sisson and Stanley Wolpert (eds.), Congress and Indian Nationalism: The Pre-independence Phase (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988); Ram Joshi and R.K. Hebsur (eds.), Congress in Indian Politics: A Centenary Perspective (Bombay: Popular, 1987); Meenakshi Jain, The Congress Party, 1967-1977: The Role of Caste in Indian Politics (Delhi: Vikash, 1991).
40. The literature on the Congress Party is enormous. See Subrata K. Mitra, 'Party Organization and Policy Making in a Changing Environment: The Indian National Congress', in Kay Lawson (ed.), How Political Parties Work: Perspectives from Within (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994); Mike Shepperdson and Colin Simmons (eds.), The Indian National Congress and the Political Economy of India, 1885-1995 (London: Avebury, 1988); Richard Sisson and Stanley Wolpert (eds.), Congress and Indian Nationalism: The Pre-independence Phase (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988); Ram Joshi and R.K. Hebsur (eds.), Congress in Indian Politics: A Centenary Perspective (Bombay: Popular, 1987); Meenakshi Jain, The Congress Party, 1967-1977: The Role of Caste in Indian Politics (Delhi: Vikash, 1991).
41. The literature on the Congress Party is enormous. See Subrata K. Mitra, 'Party Organization and Policy Making in a Changing Environment: The Indian National Congress', in Kay Lawson (ed.), How Political Parties Work: Perspectives from Within (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994); Mike Shepperdson and Colin Simmons (eds.), The Indian National Congress and the Political Economy of India, 1885-1995 (London: Avebury, 1988); Richard Sisson and Stanley Wolpert (eds.), Congress and Indian Nationalism: The Pre-independence Phase (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988); Ram Joshi and R.K. Hebsur (eds.), Congress in Indian Politics: A Centenary Perspective (Bombay: Popular, 1987); Meenakshi Jain, The Congress Party, 1967-1977: The Role of Caste in Indian Politics (Delhi: Vikash, 1991).
42. See Tables 2 and 3 for abbreviations of party names.
43. Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy.
44. Otto Kirchheimer, 'The Transformation of the Western European Party Systems', in LaPalombara and Weiner, Political Parties and Political Development, pp.177-200.
45. These data are based on the 1996 opinion poll mentioned in note 12 above, and all subsequent tables present an analysis of this opinion data.
46. The figures are as follows: Left Front voters, 67.9 per cent; National Front, 62.2 per cent; BJP, 61.4 per cent; Congress 59.4 per cent; Bahujan Samaj Party 55.8 per cent. This shows both the close relationship between partisanship and efficacy as well as the widely dispersed nature of the sense of efficacy across the whole ideological spectrum of political parties.
47. The main question asked to measure this phenomenon in the survey was Would you say that persons we elect by voting generally care about what people like you think, or that they don't care? As astoundingly high 63.1 per cent say that the elected representatives do not care. The larger implications of this will be discussed below at length.
48. See in particular Atul Kohli, Democracy and Discontent: India's Growing Crisis of Governability (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) and Bhabani Sen Gupta, India: Problems of Governance (New Delhi: Konark Publishers, 1996).
49. See in particular Atul Kohli, Democracy and Discontent: India's Growing Crisis of Governability (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) and Bhabani Sen Gupta, India: Problems of Governance (New Delhi: Konark Publishers, 1996).
50. M.J. Akbar, Riot after Riot: Reports on Caste and Communal Violence in India (Delhi: Penguin, 1988/1991).
51. Both 'Efficacy' and 'Legitimacy' are constructed scales presenting the sum scores of two and three variables respectively. The 'Efficacy' scale is based on the following two questions: Do you think that your vote has an effect on how things are run in this country or you think your vote makes no difference? and Would you say that persons we elect by voting generally care about what people like you think, or that they don't care? For the 'Legitimacy' variable, three questions were asked: How much in your opinion do political parties help to make government pay attention to the people; Suppose there were no parties or assemblies and elections were not held - do you think that the government in this country can be run better?, and finally, How much does having elections from time to time make the government pay attention to the people?
52. Burnell and Calvert, 'The Resilience of Democracy: An Introduction' in this collection, p.1.
53. Burnell and Calvert, 'The Resilience of Democracy: An Introduction' in this collection, p.19.
54. Therefore, the probability that a 'proliferation of single-issue groups that feeds a decline in political parties' (Burnell and Calvert, 'The Resilience of Democracy: An Introduction', p. 28) could happen in India and pose a threat to her democracy appears to be very low.
55. The Fourth Republic of France, contemporary Italy, Israel and Japan provide similar cases where government instability co-exists with regime and policy stability.
56. In order to improve the odds against such a possibility, it will probably not be a bad thing for India to take a leaf out of the German Parteienrecht (Political Parties Regulatory Act) and add a suitable amendment to the Indian Representation of the People Act, reinforcing the necessity of political parties. We find here, for instance, legally binding rules for the financing of parties and for the basic requirements with regard to inner-party democracy