Political Parties In India Their Ideology And Organisation

Indian party politics, commonly viewed as chaotic, clientelistic, and corrupt, is nevertheless a model for deepening democracy and accommodating diversity. But if these perspectives are contradictory, they do have one thing in common: the perception of Indian politics as non-ideological in nature. In Ideology and Identity, Pradeep K. Chhibber and Rahul Verma argue that the Western European paradigm of what constitutes an ideology is not entirely applicable to many multiethnic countries in the twentieth century. In these more diverse states, the most important ideological debates center on statism-or the extent to which the state should dominate society, regulate social norms, redistribute private property, and accommodate the needs of various marginalized groups. Using survey data from the Indian National Election Studies (NES) and other studies along with evidence drawn from the Constituent Assembly debates, this book shows how education, the media, and religious practice transmit the competing ideas that lie at the heart of the ideological debates in India.

This comprehensive textbook outlines and illuminates the main theories of political parties and party systems. Applying these theoretical approaches to British party politics, Moshe Maor covers all the key subjects of study including: * classification of party definitions * party systems change * party institutionalization * cohesion and dissent * intraparty conflicts and ligislative bargaining * multiparty electoral competition Maor's study highlights the importance of the intraparty arena and actors in understanding the shape and behaviour of political parties, pr.

The Swatantra Party, founded in 1959 to provide a right-wing opposition to the ruling Congress Party, has since become the leading opposition in the Indian national parliament. Dr Erdman examines the background, emergence and growth of Swatantra within the framework of conservative politics in India. He first considers the concept of conservatism, and surveys the doctrines, social bases and political organization of the right-wing parties prior to 1959. He then describes how the Swatantra coalition, predominantly an aggregate of provincial parties, was founded by some of India's most distinguished public figures. The later chapters examine in detail the internal structure, ideology, leadership and electoral performance of the party, and its relationship with the other major opposition parties in India. The results of the 1967 elections are discussed in an appendix.