Measuring Voting Behaviour in India captures the dynamics of multiple methodologies used for measuring voting behavior in India in the past and present. The authors elaborate on various methods that are used for measuring voters' opinions, attitudes, and perceptions. They discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each method to capture the multiplicity of the electoral experience of diverse voters across different settings in India. This they accomplish utilizing their long experience of conducting national- and state-level election surveys in India and by simultaneous studies using different methodologies. The authors trace the tradition of measuring voting behavior in India from a historical perspective, beginning with a constituency-level study of the Poona Lok Sabha constituency in 1967. They move on to discuss in great detail the survey method for measuring voting behavior widely used in the 1990s and even after that. The book introduces to the readers details of conducting election surveys, that is, sampling, questionnaire design, field work and data collection, data entry and analysis, and challenges in estimating vote share based on surveys. It also delves into the various challenges and hurdles in translating vote estimates into seat estimates, with the nature of the political contest varying from one state to another. The book poses the major challenges in measuring the voting behavior of Indian voters and tries to offer possible solutions to meet these challenges.

This book looks at the patterns and trends of participation in Indian elections since 1952 – the first elections held in independent India. It engages with debates around the nature of the multi-party electoral politics in India and its impact on the voting behaviour of Indian voters. The book uses extensive empirical data from the state and national elections to analyze the history and evolution of the country’s electoral systems as well as the challenges and safeguards for conducting fair elections in the world’s largest democracy. The author explores the trends in turnout in regional and national elections and its relationship with electoral outcomes. He analyzes electoral patterns over the last seven decades as well as patterns of participation of marginalized groups, the younger population, and the narrowing gap of women’s electoral participation. The book discusses the role of money, the criminalization of electoral politics, and its influence on Indian elections. It also focuses on the issue of irregular delimitation of electoral constituencies and its implication on political representation. Topical and comprehensive, this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of political studies, political sociology, public administration and governance, and South Asian studies. It will also be useful for journalists and think tanks interested in India’s electoral processes and debates. It could serve as a guidebook as well for those interested in the nitty-gritty of Indian elections.

This book looks at different dimensions of political participation of women voters in India. Elections in India have witnessed increasing electoral participation of women, both as political actors as well as voters. Taking note of this positive development, the book studies what has contributed to this increased turnout among women voters in Indian elections and discusses in detail the factors that facilitate or hinder this participation. Drawing on empirical data from 11 Indian states, it looks at key issues like voting behaviour and political activities of Indian women, individual and motivational factors affecting participation, political socialization of women at home and the role of internalized patriarchy, political opinions, as well as challenges of representation in politics for women in India. An important contribution in the study of voting patterns, this book will be indispensable to scholars and researchers of political studies, women's studies, gender studies, sociology, Indian politics, political sociology, voting behaviour, and South Asian studies. It will also be useful for journalists and activists.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book investigates the impact of vote buying on the accountability of democratic institutions and policy representation in newly democratic countries, with a focus on Indonesia. In doing so, the book presents a wide-ranging study of the dynamics of vote buying in Indonesia’s young democracy, exploring the nature, extent, determinants, targeting and effectiveness of this practice. It addresses these central issues in the context of comparative studies of vote buying, arguing that although party loyalists are disproportionately targeted in vote buying efforts, in total numbers —given the relatively small number of party loyalists in Indonesia— vote buying hits more uncommitted voters. It also demonstrates that the effectiveness of vote buying on vote choice is in the 10 percent range, which is sufficient for many candidates to secure a seat and thus explains why they still engage in vote buying despite high levels of leakage.

From Kosovo to Kabul, the last decade witnessed growing interest in ?electoral engineering?. Reformers have sought to achieve either greater government accountability through majoritarian arrangements or wider parliamentary diversity through proportional formula. Underlying the normative debates are important claims about the impact and consequences of electoral reform for political representation and voting behavior. The study compares and evaluates two broad schools of thought, each offering contracting expectations. One popular approach claims that formal rules define electoral incentives facing parties, politicians and citizens. By changing these rules, rational choice institutionalism claims that we have the capacity to shape political behavior. Alternative cultural modernization theories differ in their emphasis on the primary motors driving human behavior, their expectations about the pace of change, and also their assumptions about the ability of formal institutional rules to alter, rather than adapt to, deeply embedded and habitual social norms and patterns of human behavior.

Voters do not always choose their preferred candidate on election day. Often they cast their ballots to prevent a particular outcome, as when their own preferred candidate has no hope of winning and they want to prevent another, undesirable candidate’s victory; or, they vote to promote a single-party majority in parliamentary systems, when their own candidate is from a party that has no hope of winning. In their thought-provoking book The Many Faces of Strategic Voting, Laura B. Stephenson, John H. Aldrich, and André Blais first provide a conceptual framework for understanding why people vote strategically, and what the differences are between sincere and strategic voting behaviors. Expert contributors then explore the many facets of strategic voting through case studies in Great Britain, Spain, Canada, Japan, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and the European Union.

This book explores the attitudes, anxieties and aspirations of India’s burgeoning young population in a globalised world. Drawing upon time-series survey data of the Indian youth aged between 15 and 34 years across 19 Indian states, it provides key insights into a range of themes along with an overview of the changing trends and patterns of their behaviour. The volume examines the job preferences of the Indian youth, their career priorities and opinions on reservations in employment and education sectors. It measures their degree of political participation and studies their attitude regarding political issues. It looks at aspects relating to their social and cultural contexts, preferences and practices, including lifestyle choices, consumption habits and social customs such as marriage, as they negotiate between tradition and modernity. Further, it discusses the anxieties and insecurities that the youth face, their mental health and their experiences of social discrimination. The essays here offer an understanding of a critical demographic and shed light on the challenges and opportunities that the Indian youth confront today. Lucid, accessible and empirically grounded, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of sociology, political sociology, political studies, youth psychology and anthropology as well as policymakers, journalists and the interested general reader.