Elite Parties, Poor Voters: How Social Services Win Votes in India

Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics

by Tariq Thachil

Why do poor people often vote against their material interests? This puzzle has been famously studied within wealthy Western democracies, yet the fact that the poor voter paradox also routinely manifests within poor countries has remained unexplored. This book studies how this paradox emerged in India, the world's largest democracy. Tariq Thachil shows how arguments from studies of wealthy democracies (such as moral values voting) and the global south (such as patronage or ethnic appeals) cannot explain why poor voters in poor countries support parties that represent elite policy interests. He instead draws on extensive survey data and fieldwork to document a novel strategy through which elite parties can recruit the poor, while retaining the rich. He shows how these parties can win over disadvantaged voters by privately providing them with basic social services via grassroots affiliates. Such outsourcing permits the party itself to continue to represent the policy interests of their privileged base.

Genres: Politics, India, Political Science, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2014

Reviews

[Leanne Powner]

Tariq Thachil’s _Elite Parties, Poor Voters: How Social Services Win Votes in India_ is one of the best political science books I’ve read in a long time. The research design is carefully conceived and superbly executed, and the writing is clear and convincing. This book should be on the reading list for any graduate course in qualitative research design or research design in general.

One of the strengths of Thachil’s book is its mixed-methods design, which integrates macro data with in-depth field work and surveys conducted on-site in rural villages. This multi-level approach allows him to test hypotheses at a variety of levels to triangulate support for his theory. Because his theory argues that social services buy votes not as quid pro quo but instead by creating its party cadres as valuable, respected members of the community – opinion leaders, if you will, exercising soft power instead of hard – an important part of the evidence had to come from party cadres themselves as well as from the poor rural voters. The theory has implications at the level of Indian states, which are the primary alternative providers of social services, at the level of party and party activist behavior, and at the level of voters, and Thachil’s careful, precise design captures all three.

Not being an expert on India, I can’t say whether there possibly were better locations to have chosen, but the justifications (and data) given in the book for the choices and comparisons were sufficiently convincing for this reader. The mix of descriptive and inferential statistics used created appropriate but still accessible support for the claims, and the claims made were reasonable interpretations of the available evidence. Appropriate attention was paid to interpreting non-events and the absence of evidence. I was thoroughly convinced after reading this book, and that’s not a claim I make lightly or frequently.

[Jesse]

Very interesting book, provides a convincing explanation of how the BJP has managed to become such a hegemonic party in the southern, less-politicized Hindi belt states (Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, MP).

International context is also fascinating - in many ways, the BJP does resemble "Muslim Brotherhood" parties (strong "a-political" religious/cultural/service wings, educated urban middle-class core, somewhat puritan cultural).

The most interesting conclusion, however, of the book is the likely long-term failure of service provision as a strategy after victory - once a party is in power, it won't be judged on the service wing's goodwill, and if it succeeds at delivering quality services, then the service wing won't be of use any more. That said, once a party has catapulted itself into government, it gains access to more options for maintaining its power.

Overall quite an interesting book, useful for anyone interested in Indian politics or party politics in the developing world more generally.

[Sankarshan]

Strongly recommended for anyone who wants to understand the structural dynamics of the electorate and the voting patterns in the recent elections. The citations by themselves compel the reader to think through the events and discourse.