IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/soudev/v7y2012i2p139-160.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of India’s Regional Parties on Voter Turnout and Human Development

Author

Listed:
  • Devin K. Joshi

Abstract

While some analysts fear that regional parties in federal democracies are narrow in orientation, Indian experience has shown that regional parties can sometimes improve both voter turnout and human development (HD) in their region. Based on the experience of the South Indian states of Kerala and Tamilnadu, this article develops a theory of how regional parties in developing countries may occasionally succeed at these goals while identifying five obstacles that may prevent HD improvement even if voter turnout expands. Testing this theory across Indian states over the period from 1970 to 2000, I discover that regional parties significantly increased voter turnout. Utilising pooled regression analysis of the human development index (HDI), I find that HD performance was largely determined by initial conditions, social spending, agricultural yield and gender equality, but the evidence also suggests a small but positive relationship between regional party control of state governments and HDI improvement.

Suggested Citation

  • Devin K. Joshi, 2012. "The Impact of India’s Regional Parties on Voter Turnout and Human Development," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 7(2), pages 139-160, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:soudev:v:7:y:2012:i:2:p:139-160
    DOI: 10.1177/0973174112466362
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0973174112466362
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0973174112466362?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rohini Pande, 2003. "Can Mandated Political Representation Increase Policy Influence for Disadvantaged Minorities? Theory and Evidence from India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1132-1151, September.
    2. Brancati, Dawn, 2008. "The Origins and Strengths of Regional Parties," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 135-159, January.
    3. A. Indrayan & M.J. Wysocki & A. Chawla & R. Kumar & N. Singh, 1999. "3-Decade Trend in Human Development Index in India and Its Major States," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 91-120, January.
    4. Sandbrook,Richard & Edelman,Marc & Heller,Patrick & Teichman,Judith, 2007. "Social Democracy in the Global Periphery," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521867030.
    5. Michael Keating, 1998. "The New Regionalism in Western Europe," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1193.
    6. Sandbrook,Richard & Edelman,Marc & Heller,Patrick & Teichman,Judith, 2007. "Social Democracy in the Global Periphery," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521686877.
    7. Morse, Stephen, 2003. "For better or for worse, till the human development index do us part?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 281-296, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sophie King, 2014. "Cultivating political capabilities among Ugandan smallholders: good governance or popular organisation building?," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 19314, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    2. Croucher, Richard & Rizov, Marian, 2015. "MNEs and flexible working practices in Mauritius," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 26(21), pages 2701-2717.
    3. Peter Evans & Patrick Heller, 2018. "The state and development," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-112, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Zachary Levenson, 2018. "The road to TRAs is paved with good intentions: Dispossession through delivery in post-apartheid Cape Town," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(14), pages 3218-3233, November.
    5. Kerem Gabriel Öktem, 2020. "The Welfare State as Universal Social Security: A Global Analysis," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 103-113.
    6. Kashwan, Prakash & MacLean, Lauren M. & García-López, Gustavo A., 2019. "Rethinking power and institutions in the shadows of neoliberalism," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 133-146.
    7. Croucher, Richard & Rizov, Marian & Goolaup, Ram, 2014. "The antecedents of direct management communication to employees in Mauritius," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 25(17), pages 2420-2437.
    8. Luisa Steur, 2009. "Adivasi Mobilisation," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 4(1), pages 25-44, April.
    9. Pamela Robinson, 2010. "Responsible Retailing: The Practice of CSR in Banana Plantations in Costa Rica," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 279-289, February.
    10. Makarin, Alexey & Piqué, Ricardo & Aragón, Fernando, 2020. "National or sub-national parties: Does party geographic scope matter?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    11. Isaac Khambule, 2018. "The role of Local Economic Development Agencies in South Africa’s developmental state ambitions," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 33(3), pages 287-306, May.
    12. Frederick Golooba-Mutebi & Sam Hickey, 2013. "Investigating the links between political settlements and inclusive development in Uganda: towards a research agenda," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-020-13, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    13. Yusuf Bangura, 2018. "Bargaining for Development: The World Bank's 2017 World Development Report, Governance and the Law," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(2), pages 644-661, March.
    14. J. Stephen Ferris & Bharatee Bhusana Dash, 2023. "On the structure of the political party system in Indian states, 1957–2018," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 1-35, March.
    15. Morse, Stephen, 2006. "Making development simple. The genetic deterministic hypothesis for economic development," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 79-88, January.
    16. Franklin Oduro & Mohammed Awal & Maxwell Agyei Ashon, 2014. "A dynamic mapping of the political settlement in Ghana," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-028-14, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    17. Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai, 2014. "Rethinking spatial inequalities in development: the primacy of politics and power relations," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-029-14, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    18. Hans Löfgren, 2016. "The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Left Government in West Bengal, 1977–2011: Strains of Governance and Socialist Imagination," Studies in Indian Politics, , vol. 4(1), pages 102-115, June.
    19. Ali Burak Güven, 2016. "Rethinking Development Space in Emerging Countries: Turkey's Conservative Countermovement," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 47(5), pages 995-1024, September.
    20. Matthias vom Hau, 2012. "State capacity and inclusive development: new challenges and directions," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-002-12, GDI, The University of Manchester.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:soudev:v:7:y:2012:i:2:p:139-160. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.