Why Ethnic Parties Succeed: Patronage and Ethnic Head Counts in India

ISBN-13: 9780521814522 / Angielski / Twarda / 2004 / 368 str.

Kanchan Chandra; Peter Lange; Robert H. Bates

Opis

Drawing on a study of variation in the performance of four ethnic parties in India, this book develops a theory of ethnic party performance in "patronage democracies"--a family of democracies with distinct patterns of political behavior as well as a new interpretation of Indian democracy. Demonstrating the connection between India's state-dominated economy and the behavior of its voters and politicians, it includes an extensive study of the Bahujan Samaj Party and contemporary ethnic politics in India.

Recenzje

'In explaining why some ethnic parties succeed while others fail, Kanchan Chandra makes an important contribution to our understanding of ethnicity in politics. By highlighting the interaction of group size and internal party rules in a context characterized by the kind of information constraints inherent in patronage democracies, she provides a nover microfoundation for ethnic politics in competitive democracies. In addition, her book sets a new benchmark on how to combine abstract thinking and rich analysis.' Stathis N. Kalyvas, Yale University

Spis treści

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.