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Duverger's law and the size of the Indian party system
Duverger’s law postulates that single-member plurality electoral systems lead to two-party systems. Existing scholarship regards India as an exception to this law at national level, but not at district level. This study tests the latter hypothesis through analysis of a comprehensive dataset covering Indian parliamentary elections in the period 1952–2004. The results show that a large number of Indian districts do not conform to the Duvergerian norm of two-party competition, and that there is no consistent movement towards the Duvergerian equilibrium. Furthermore, inter-region and inter-state variations in the size of district-level party systems make it difficult to generalize about the application of Duverger’s law to the Indian case. The study concludes that a narrow focus on electoral rules is inadequate, and that a more comprehensive set of explanatory variables is needed to explain the size of the Indian party system even at the district level.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
Party PoliticsISSN
1354-0688Publisher
SAGE PublicationsExternal DOI
Issue
5Volume
13Page range
539-561Department affiliated with
- Politics Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Sussex European Institute Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2016-06-03First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2016-06-03Usage metrics
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