India’s 2009 Elections: The Resilience of Regionalism and Ethnicity
The 2009 Indian general elections saw the Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance retain power, with a remarkable increase of seats in the National Assembly (Lok Sabha), leading to claims of a ‘re-nationalization’ of the party system as well as of the voting pattern. However, evidence from th...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud
2009-12-01
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| Series: | South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/2787 |
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| author | Christophe Jaffrelot Gilles Verniers |
| author_facet | Christophe Jaffrelot Gilles Verniers |
| author_sort | Christophe Jaffrelot |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The 2009 Indian general elections saw the Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance retain power, with a remarkable increase of seats in the National Assembly (Lok Sabha), leading to claims of a ‘re-nationalization’ of the party system as well as of the voting pattern. However, evidence from the results themselves show that, on the contrary, the process of fragmentation of the party system and the electorate is still progressing, Indian voters having opted for regional and local players more than they ever did before. The distorting effect of the majority electoral system (‘First Past The Post’) provides the central explanation for this apparent paradox. A close look at the electoral results also demonstrates the resilience of ‘ethnic voting’, despite the recurring discourse on the predominance of ‘economic voting’. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e5d9abf42ba24bb09f4a0e425a969540 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1960-6060 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2009-12-01 |
| publisher | Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud |
| record_format | Article |
| series | South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-e5d9abf42ba24bb09f4a0e425a9695402025-08-20T01:55:21ZengCentre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du SudSouth Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal1960-60602009-12-01310.4000/samaj.2787India’s 2009 Elections: The Resilience of Regionalism and EthnicityChristophe JaffrelotGilles VerniersThe 2009 Indian general elections saw the Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance retain power, with a remarkable increase of seats in the National Assembly (Lok Sabha), leading to claims of a ‘re-nationalization’ of the party system as well as of the voting pattern. However, evidence from the results themselves show that, on the contrary, the process of fragmentation of the party system and the electorate is still progressing, Indian voters having opted for regional and local players more than they ever did before. The distorting effect of the majority electoral system (‘First Past The Post’) provides the central explanation for this apparent paradox. A close look at the electoral results also demonstrates the resilience of ‘ethnic voting’, despite the recurring discourse on the predominance of ‘economic voting’.https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/2787Indiageneral electionsethnic votingclass votingregional partiesregionalization |
| spellingShingle | Christophe Jaffrelot Gilles Verniers India’s 2009 Elections: The Resilience of Regionalism and Ethnicity South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal India general elections ethnic voting class voting regional parties regionalization |
| title | India’s 2009 Elections: The Resilience of Regionalism and Ethnicity |
| title_full | India’s 2009 Elections: The Resilience of Regionalism and Ethnicity |
| title_fullStr | India’s 2009 Elections: The Resilience of Regionalism and Ethnicity |
| title_full_unstemmed | India’s 2009 Elections: The Resilience of Regionalism and Ethnicity |
| title_short | India’s 2009 Elections: The Resilience of Regionalism and Ethnicity |
| title_sort | india s 2009 elections the resilience of regionalism and ethnicity |
| topic | India general elections ethnic voting class voting regional parties regionalization |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/2787 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT christophejaffrelot indias2009electionstheresilienceofregionalismandethnicity AT gillesverniers indias2009electionstheresilienceofregionalismandethnicity |