Concurrent Elections and Voter Turnout: The Effect of the De‐linking of State Elections on Electoral Participation in India's Parliamentary Polls, 1971–2004

Csaba Nikolenyi

Political Studies, 2010, vol. 58, issue 1, 214-233

Abstract: This article examines the effect that the decoupling of state and national elections has had on voter turnout in India's national parliamentary polls since 1971. According to conventional wisdom in the comparative literature on electoral turnout, separate elections to multiple levels and/or branches of government should depress turnout relative to co‐temporal polls, ceteris paribus. The evidence from Indian elections provides strong confirmation for this hypothesis. This suggests that political decentralization through separate national and local elections may actually weaken citizens' incentives to participate in the democratic electoral process.

Date: 2010
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