Abstract
Borooah examines the topics of vote concentration (differences between the INC and the BJP in the concentration of their votes and seats in the various states) and vote distribution (unevenness in the distribution of the INC and BJP vote across the constituencies). Combining these topics the central question is what proportion of the seats won by the INC and the BJP was due to a high average vote and what proportion was the result of a favourable distribution of votes? The message is that even if the INC received the same number of total votes as the BJP it would still win fewer seats. For the INC to nullify the effects of its distributional disadvantage it must raise its vote substantially above the BJP vote.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Cowell, F. A., & Jenkins, S. P. (1995). How much inequality can we explain? A methodology and an application to the United States. Economic Journal, 105, 421–430.
Dunleavy, P., & Bouchek, F. (2003). Constructing the number of parties. Party Politics, 9, 291–315.
Hirschman, A. O. (1964). The paternity of an index. The American Economic Review, 54(5), 761.
Laakso, M., & Taagepera, R. (1979). Effective number of parties: A measure with application to West Europe. Comparative Political Studies, 12, 3–27.
Renyi, A. (1965). On the foundations of information theory. Review of the International Statistical Institute, 33, 1–14.
Shorrocks, A. F. (1980). A class of additively decomposable measures. Econometrica, 50, 613–625.
Theil, H. (1967). Economics and information theory. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Borooah, V.K. (2016). The Concentration and Distribution of Votes. In: Votes, Parties, and Seats. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30487-8_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30487-8_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-30486-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-30487-8
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)