Elite Parties, Poor VotersWhy do poor people often vote against their material interests? This puzzle has been famously studied within wealthy Western democracies, yet the fact that the poor voter paradox also routinely manifests within poor countries has remained unexplored. This book studies how this paradox emerged in India, the world's largest democracy. Tariq Thachil shows how arguments from studies of wealthy democracies (such as moral values voting) and the global south (such as patronage or ethnic appeals) cannot explain why poor voters in poor countries support parties that represent elite policy interests. He instead draws on extensive survey data and fieldwork to document a novel strategy through which elite parties can recruit the poor, while retaining the rich. He shows how these parties can win over disadvantaged voters by privately providing them with basic social services via grassroots affiliates. Such outsourcing permits the party itself to continue to represent the policy interests of their privileged base. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Dissecting the BJPs Struggles | 36 |
Why Rich and Poor Voters Support an Elite Party in India | 81 |
Why an Elite Party Turned to Services | 104 |
1a Growth in Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram projects 19812007 | 109 |
service networks are denser | 139 |
How Services Win Votes | 142 |
When Services Fail | 183 |
Other editions - View all
Elite Parties, Poor Voters: How Social Services Win Votes in India Tariq Thachil Limited preview - 2014 |
Elite Parties, Poor Voters: How Social Services Win Votes in India Tariq Thachil No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
activities affiliates Agra analysis appeal argued argument Bahujan Samaj Party beneficiaries BJP support BJP’s Brahmin BSP’s candidates caste communities caste-based Chhattisgarh coalition Communist Congress constituencies core country’s Dalit and Adivasi economic efforts elite parties ethnic expand Ezhavas Hindu nationalism Hindu nationalists Hindutva ideological impact India Indonesia influence Interview Islah Islamic Islamist Jaffrelot Jashpur Jharkhand Kerala leaders lower caste Madhya Pradesh major membership mobilizing movement Muslim National Election non-beneficiaries non-elite OBCs organizational organizations partisan party’s patronage percent PKS’s political poor voters population private welfare programmatic recruitment religious respondents rivals sample Sangh activists Sangh Parivar Sangh service schools service activists service chapters service networks service provision Seva Bharati shakhas social specifically state’s subaltern communities subaltern voters success support the BJP survey Tamil Nadu Thiruvananthapuram tribal upper caste Uttar Pradesh variable village VKA’s workers Yemen