Outcome of FTPT in Diversified Society: Evidence on Disproportionality from Loksabha Constituencies

Vivek Sharadadevi Jadhav
Additional contact information
Vivek Sharadadevi Jadhav: Phd Research Scholar(Corresponding author), Madras School of Economics

Working Papers from Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India

Abstract: Democracy across the world has witnessed the evolution of the electoral system. First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) practiced in India does have certain disadvantages like disproportional representation. This paper analyses the election outcome in FPTP electoral system in a diverse society like India using constituency level information for the Loksabha election. This paper tries to understand how social, religious diversity, fractionalization affect the outcome in the FPTP system. The fractionalization index for religious diversity, polarization index religious polarization, Herfindahl–Hirschman Index for vote concentration are formed for Loksabha constituencies to understand the impact of religious diversity on vote concentration as well as vote share of winning candidates. Further regression analysis is done where state-specific and time-specific effects are controlled. It is found that fractionalization i.e. religious diversity affects the vote concentration negatively. It is also found that on average the vote concentration for SC/ST reserved constituencies is lower than general constituencies. This suggests that religious diversity reduces the vote concentration which further leads to disproportionality. It is important to think the ways to provide the space for the parties which are getting votes but not getting seats in Loksabha specifically for reserved constituencies.

Keywords: Religious Polarization; Electoral System; Religious; Fractionalization; Vote Concentration. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 H11 K16 P48 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2022-05
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mse.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Working-Paper-219.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mad:wpaper:2022-219

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Geetha G ().