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Duverger's law and the size of the Indian party system

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-20, 14:15 authored by Rekha DiwakarRekha Diwakar
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 Politics

ISSN

1354-0688

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Issue

5

Volume

13

Page range

539-561

Department affiliated with

  • Politics Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Sussex European Institute Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-06-03

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-06-03

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