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Incumbents and Criminals in the Indian National Legislature

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  • Aidt, T.
  • Golden, M. A.
  • Tiwari, D.

Abstract

Utilizing data on criminal charges lodged against candidates to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of representatives, we study the conditions that resulted in approximately a quarter of members of parliament elected in 2004 and in 2009 facing or having previously faced criminal charges. Our results document that Indian political parties are more likely to select alleged criminal candidates when confronting greater electoral uncertainty and in parliamentary constituencies whose populations exhibit lower levels of literacy. We interpret the decisions of political parties to enlist known criminals as candidates as a function of the capacity of these candidates to intimidate voters. To substantiate this, we show that criminal candidates depress electoral turnout. In addition, our results suggest that India’s well-known incumbency disadvantage stems from the superior electoral performance of allegedly criminal candidates, who drive parliamentary incumbents from office. Our study raises questions for democratic theory, which claims that electoral competition improves accountability, and for the future of the Indian polity, which is experiencing a growing criminalization of the national political arena.

Suggested Citation

  • Aidt, T. & Golden, M. A. & Tiwari, D., 2011. "Incumbents and Criminals in the Indian National Legislature," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1157, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
  • Handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:1157
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    1. China, India and All That
      by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson in Why Nations Fail on 2012-11-02 20:00:00

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    Cited by:

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    3. Gehring, Kai & Kauffeldt, T. Florian & Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya, 2019. "Crime, incentives and political effort: Evidence from India," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1-20.
    4. Chitra Jogani, 2022. "Effect of Political Quotas on Attributes of Political Candidates and Provision of Public Goods," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 267-316, April.
    5. Bharatee Bhusana, Ferris, J Stephen Dash & Stanley L. Winer, 2018. "Measuring Electoral Competitiveness: With Application to the Indian States," CESifo Working Paper Series 7216, CESifo.
    6. Prakash, Nishith & Rockmore, Marc & Uppal, Yogesh, 2019. "Do criminally accused politicians affect economic outcomes? Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    7. Soumyanetra Munshi, 2021. "Criminality and clientelism: a game-theoretic exploration," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 375-403, December.
    8. Amrita Dhillon & Pramila Krishnan & Manasa Patnam & Carlo Perroni, 2020. "Secession with Natural Resources," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(631), pages 2207-2248.
    9. Dutta, Bhaskar & Gupta, Poonam, 2012. "How Do Indian Voters Respond to Candidates with Criminal Charges : Evidence from the 2009 Lok Sabha Elections," MPRA Paper 38417, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Afridi, Farzana & Dhillon, Amrita & Solan, Eilon, 2016. "Exposing corruption: Can electoral competition discipline politicians?," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 311, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    11. Afridi, Farzana & Dhillon, Amrita & Solan, Eilon, 2019. "Electoral Competition and Corruption: Theory and Evidence from India," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 423, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    12. P. Duraisamy & Bruno Jérôme, 2017. "Who wins in the Indian parliament election: Criminals, wealthy and incumbents?," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 19(2), pages 245-262, October.
    13. Thomas Braendle & Alois Stutzer, 2017. "Voters and Representatives: How Should Representatives Be Selected?," CREMA Working Paper Series 2017-05, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
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