Why Ethnic Parties Succeed

Patronage and Ethnic Head Counts in India

Häftad, Engelska, 2007

Av Kanchan Chandra, Kanchan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Chandra, Peter Lange, Robert H. Bates

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Why do some ethnic parties succeed in attracting the support of their target ethnic group while others fail? In a world in which ethnic parties flourish in both established and emerging democracies alike, understanding the conditions under which such parties rise and fall is of critical importance to both political scientists and policy makers. Drawing on a study of variation in the performance of ethnic parties in India, this book builds a theory of ethnic party performance in 'patronage democracies'. Chandra shows why individual voters and political entrepreneurs in such democracies condition their strategies not on party ideologies or policy platforms, but on a headcount of co-ethnics and others across party personnel and among the electorate.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2007-02-15
Mått151 x 227 x 20 mm
Vikt553 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieCambridge Studies in Comparative Politics
Antal sidor368
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9780521891417

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List of maps; figures, and tables; List of abbreviations; A note on terminology; Acknowledgments; 1. Introduction; Part I. Theory: 2. Limited information and ethnic categorization; 3. Patronage-democracy, limited information and ethnic favouritism; 4. Counting heads: why ethnic parties succeed in patronage-democracies; 5. Why parties have different ethnic head counts: party organization and elite incorporation; Part II. Data: 6. India as a patronage-democracy; 7. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Scheduled Castes (SCs); 8. Why SC elites join the BSP; 9. Why SC voters prefer the BSP; 10. Why SC voter preferences translate into BSP votes; 11. Explaining different head counts in the BSP and congress; 12. Extending the argument to other ethnic parties in India: the BJP, the DMK and the JMM; 13. Ethnic head counts and democratic stability; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.

'Kanchan Chandra is one of the brightest lights in the new generation of political scholars of India. Chandra's contribution to ethnic studies is her challenge to the pessimistic premise advanced by leading scholars of ethnic politics that ethnic solidarities, unlike class and interest groups, are incompatible with and destructive of democratic processes. In her view, competition among ethnic minorities can lead to centrism and democratic survival rather than extremism and democratic destruction. She argues her case in game theoretic form while showing a good feel for the nitty gritty of Indian electoral settings.' Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, University of Chicago