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Where’s the Party? The Decline of Party Institutionalization and What (if Anything) that Means for Democracy1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2015

Steven I. Wilkinson
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Abstract

Strong institutionalized parties are often seen as vital for healthy democracies. The Indian case, therefore, represents a strange paradox: many parties are weak, corrupt and personalistic, yet democracy as a whole seems to be thriving, with increasing turnout and apparently strong popular support for democratic procedures and norms. This article explores some of the reasons for this strange outcome and suggests that the existing literature on party institutionalization might need some revision.

Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 50 , Special Issue 3: 50th Anniversary Special Issue THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY , July 2015 , pp. 420 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015.

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Footnotes

*

Steven I. Wilkinson is Nilekani Professor of India and South Asian Studies in the Department of Political Science, Yale University. Contact email: [email protected].

1

This title, ‘Where’s the Party?’ has been used in a different context by Krehbiel (1993) in a paper on American legislative politics.

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