Abstract
The Indian party system is one of the most paradoxical systems in the world. As a system, it is rigid enough to withstand continuous defections and yet fluid enough to absorb new alliances; inclusive enough to accommodate the immense diversity and yet exclusive enough to be controlled by one family; mature enough to allow peaceful turnovers and yet inapt enough to arouse spontaneous violence; and, finally, old enough to become “one of the world’s oldest” and yet youthful enough to produce new parties overnight. Its ever-evolving character, with strong qualities of adaptation and resilience, defies the conventional wisdom on political parties.
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Notes
T. J. Pempel, “Introduction,” in T. J. Pempel, ed., Uncommon Democracies: The One-Party Dominant Regimes (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1990),
Paul R. Brass, The Politics of India since Independence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
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Paul R. Brass agues that due to these practices, the Congress (I) Party turned into a cadre party in the 1970s–80s. See, Paul R. Brass, Caste, Faction and Party in Indian Politics (Delhi: Chanakya, 1983).
There is a near consensus on the after-effects of Mrs. Gandhi’s governance style. See, Henry C. Hart, ed., Indira Gandhi’s India: A Political System Reap-praided (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1976).
Wyndraeth H. Morris-Jones, “Dominance and Dissent,” in Morris-Jones, Politics Mainly Indian (Madras: Orient Longman, 1978), p.217.
Robert L. Hardgrave & Stanley A. Kochanek, India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1993), p.258.
Pradeep K. Chhibber, “The puzzle of Indian Politics: Social Cleavages and the Indian Party System,” in British Journal of Political Science, vol. 19 (1989): p.191–212.
C. Rangarajan, et alia, Strategies for Industrial Development in 1980s (New Delhi: Oxford University, 1981).
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© 1999 Marco Rimanelli
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Khator, R. (1999). The Political Party System of India: From One-Party Dominance to No-Party Dominance. In: Rimanelli, M. (eds) Comparative Democratization and Peaceful Change in Single-Party-Dominant Countries. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780312292676_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780312292676_13
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
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