Schakel, Arjun, and Wilfried Swenden. "Rethinking Party System Nationalization in India (1952–2014)". Government and Opposition, Vol.53, No.1 (2018): 1-25

Schakel, Arjun, and Wilfried Swenden. "Rethinking Party System Nationalization in India (1952–2014)". Government and Opposition, Vol.53, No.1 (2018): 1-25

• State governments have played an increasingly important role in politics since the 1990s, since economic liberalization has limited the role of the central government at the same time that national political parties have become dependent on regional political parties for electoral support. Most citizens now view states, not the central government, as responsible for healthcare, education, and social security (3).
• The methodology of the author for determining the degree of denationalization in the Indian party system, defined as a system in which state and federal parties are different and support for a party on the federal level does not necessarily translate into support for that party at the state level, is detailed on page 4 to page 8.
• The congruence between state and federal elections has been on the decline since 1952, but has rapidly increased during the 1990s (8). The main causes of this trend are the increased power and influence of regional parties, including splits from the Indian National Congress, and the inability of new political parties to establish a national supporter base like Congress once enjoyed (10).
• Regional parties started to emerge in the 1962 elections, but controlled only a marginal portion of the national vote. Much of the massive increase in success of state parties in national elections since then has come from the transition away from independent politicians, rather than at the cost of politicians from national parties (10).
• The voting patterns indicate that denationalization of the party system is not manifested by citizens voting for different parties in regional and federal elections, but instead by citizens voting for regional parties in both levels of election. Voting for different parties in different elections was common during the 1970s, but has decreased in prominence in every subsequent election (14).
• Regional parties became more popular over time because states have gained more power in recent decades, leading voters to identify more strongly with states than they previously had; the decoupling of state and federal elections also helped states develop separate political cycles (11-12).
• The rise of regional parties is linked with the decline of Congress, as the political void left by Congress was filled with regional parties rather than competing national parties because no opposition could develop the nation-wide voter base which Congress had enjoyed. The emergence of coalition politics for Congress and opposition at the federal level created opportunities for regional parties to remain influential in the federal government, allowing them to become a stable force in Indian politics (12-13).
• Congress was unable to accommodate challenges to its rule over India because its conservative constituency could not or refused to adapt to the rise of political activism and organization among the lower castes during the 1990s, resulting in electoral loses. Additionally, its highly centralized political structure did not allow for regional politicians to exercise autonomy, prompting these politicians to split from the party (12).
• Some scholars have speculated that the 2014 election, in which the Bharat Janata Party [BJP] won a majority, marks a turning point in the Indian party system away from regionalization and denationalization, because the BJP was able to win seats across the large geographic area and win elections at both the federal level and in several state elections (14-15).
• The future ability of the BJP to mobilize national support will depend on its ability to hold together its large coalition of interests and maintain seat-multiplying vote majorities in contested districts. This, in turn, depends on the continued inability of Congress and rival regional parties to get their shit together, although currently Congress remains brutally incompetent and regional parties are too involved in factional disputes to challenge the BJP (18-19).