Lesson-3 Electoral Process, Representation and Social Determinants of Voting Behaviour Important Notes

 

Lesson-3 Electoral Process, Representation and Social Determinants of Voting Behaviour

The word election is defined as the act of electing or choosing. It is the expression of free will of a person usually by the votes of a constituent body. (Thomas Davidson1948: 298)India has the distinction of being the largest democracy in the world and election is an indispensable process of democratic system.

Indian Constituent Assembly consciously adopted a democratic form of government where every citizen has a right to participate in the process of election in choosing his representative.

After independence the first general elections took place in 1951in India. It was based on universal adult franchise. Anyone with 21 years or older in age was eligible to participate in the elections. In this election, the Indian National Congress party won in the majority of the states. The party won with around 45% votes all over the country.

After independence the first general elections took place in 1951in India. It was based on universal adult franchise. Anyone with 21 years or older in age was eligible to participate in the elections. In this election, the Indian National Congress party won in the majority of the states. The party won with around 45% votes all over the country.

Right to vote granted to the citizens of a country by the government is known as Franchise. The word Franchise is derived from the French word ‘frame’ which means free. In India all citizens who attained the age of 21 years was given the right to vote when the constitution was implemented on 26th January 1950. After the 61st Amendment act of 1989, this was lowered to 18 years. An important principle of adult franchise is rule of one person one vote.

The advantages of universal adult franchise are:

1) It is based on political equality

2) It establishes a true democratic government as it gives the right to vote to every of the country.

3) It makes the government accountable for its action. If the political party forming the government does not work well, people can vote it out in the next election.

Right to vote was not always a universal right. In the early democracies, only some people were allowed to vote.

Provisions Regarding Election in the Constitution of India

The Constitution of India in order to ensure free and fair elections, devoted a separate Part - Part XV to elections.

PART XV ELECTIONS

Article 324 – Superintendence, direction and control of elections to be vested in an election commission.

Article 325 – No person to be ineligible for inclusion in or to claim to be included in a special, electoral roll on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex.

Article 326 – Elections to the house of the people and to the legislative Assemblies of states to be on the basis of adult suffrage.

Article 327 – Power of Parliament to make provision with respect to elections to Legislatures.

Article 328 – Power of Legislature of a state to make provision with respect to elections to such Legislature

Article 329 – Bar to interference by courts in electoral matters.

Article329A – Repealed.

Electoral System in India

In India election takes place directly at three levels namely the Parliament, State and Local body levels in so far as the Legislature is concerned. As regards the executive India elects a head of the State i.e President.

Regarding Union Legislature, Parliament, which is bicameral comprising of two houses – House of People (Lok Sabha) and Council of States (Rajya Sabha). The maximum strength of Lok Sabha, as envisaged by the Constitution of India, is 552.

Currently, the House of People (Lok Sabha) has 545 members out of which 543 are elected for ordinarily a period of five year from single seat constituencies and two members are nominated by the President to represent Anglo-Indian community (Anglo Indian-Article-366(2) of constitution of India defines Anglo Indian as a person who is domiciled within the territory of India, whose father or any of his other male progenitor in the male line are of European descent. Under Article331 – Representation of Anglo Indian community in India – the President of India may appoint two members from Anglo Indian Community to Lok Sabha if in his opinion this community is not represented adequately not withstanding anything mentioned in Article-81 which deals with the composition of Lok Sabha of India).

As regard to Rajya Sabha (Council of States), it is a permanent body and one third of its members retire every 2 years. The members of Rajya Sabha are indirectly elected by the elected members of the State Legislative Assemblies for a term of six year, by means of single transferable vote.

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Types of Election

1) General Election – Election to constitute a new Lok Sabha or Assembly iscalled General Election.

2) By-Election – When due to the death or resignation of a member either in Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly a seat falls vacant, then election is held for that seat, this is known as by-election.

3) Mid-term Election – If for certain reasons, the President on the advice of the Prime Minister dissolves the Lok Sabha or State Assembly before completion of five years and the election is held to constitute new Lok Sabha or new State Assembly, etc. is called mid- term election.

The notable features of Indian electoral system are as follows:

1) The electoral system of India is based on adult suffrage. Every citizen of India who is 18 years or above is eligible to participate in the process of election however the person should not be otherwise disqualified under the Constitution or by any appropriate Constitutional bodies on certain grounds.

2) It is based on geographical representation.

3) There are only single member territorial constituencies and no functional or plural constituencies.

 4) Each territorial constituency elects a single representative by a simple majority vote.

Electoral Participation

After independence, in the first general election which took place in the year 1952, Indian national congress emerged as nation’s dominant political party. Nehru led Indian National Congress secured consecutive majorities in the elections of 1952, 1957 and 1962. After Nehru’s death in 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri became prime minister and continued his office till his death in 1966.

The year 1967 saw the rise of coalition governments in many States, but Central Government continued to be under the dominance of the Congress Party. The sixth General Election saw rise of Janata Party. At the national level, the first coalition government was formed under the leadership of Prime Minister Morarji Desai which remained in power from 24th March 1977 to 15th July 1979 headed by Janata Party.

From 1950 to 1990, barring two brief periods, the INC enjoyed a Parliamentary majority. The INC was out of power between 1977 and 1980, when the Janata Party won the election. In 1989, a Janata Dal-led National Front coalition in alliance with the Left Front coalition won the elections but managed to stay in power for only two years.

The ninth general election marked a watershed in the nation’s political development. For the first time, since independence a Hung Parliament was formed. For next four general elections—1989, 1991, 1996 and 1998 the verdict was uncertain. In 1991 elections not a single political party got majority. The Indian National Congress formed a minority government under Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and completed its five-year term. However, the period from 1996 to 1998 was a period of uncertainty in the federal government as many short-lived alliances were holding the power.

In 1996 BJP formed government and stayed in power for brief period, followed by the United Front coalition that excluded both the BJP and the INC. It was in 1996 Atal Bihari Vajpayee couldn’t hold on the Government due to lack of Majority (i.e. 272+ seats) in the Indian Parliament.

The Congress Party and other smaller parties including the left provided outside support to him in order to provide a stable Government and prevent snap-polls (Jha2012:82). The rising differences between the United Front and Congress led the latter to withdraw support.

The United Front elected Inder Kumar Gujral as its new leader and he was sworn in as Prime Minister. But due to some internal problems in the Government, this Third Front government failed to continue.

The thirteenth general election (1999) gave verdict in favour of BJP led National Democratic Alliance, A.B. Vajpayee was sworn in as the Prime Minister. Towards the end of 1998 however, the AIADMK withdrew its support from the 13-month old government. The government lost the ensuing vote of confidence motion by a single vote.

The fourteenth general election (2004) the Congress Alliance won the largest number of seats and got an assurance of support from Left Front. In the fifteenth general election (2009) Congress led UPA emerged as the largest alliance.

In the sixteenth general election (2014) Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) won a total of 336 seats and emerged as winner. Of all votes, BJP itself won 31.0% and 282 (51.9%) of all seats. It is for the first time since the 1984 Indian general elections that a party has won enough seats to govern without the support of other parties. The United Progressive Alliance, led by the Indian National Congress, won 58 seats. Out of 58 seats 44 (8.1%) were won by the Congress, that won 19.3% of all vote.

Role of Election in Democratic Systems

1. Election provides an opportunity to the voters, to allow the ruling party to continue its rule and policies, or reject it and to elect the opposition party or a coalition of parties to rule over the country for a specific period.

2. One of the greatest merits of the electoral process is that it enriches the personality of the citizens by giving every citizen a sense of responsibility in making or marring the government.

3. The elections lead to increasing political consciousness in which the rich and poor, old and young, man and women all use their political right to vote and participation. Elections are the means by which the citizens participate in the political process by voting for the representative for their voice.

 4. Elections are like a mirror which reflects the mind and aspirations of the electorates. They are the instrument which gauges the state of the rational mind.

5. The election results are an authorization, to make decisions and to govern within the broad drift of a policy platform. Thus, it is only through elections that the authority of the government is clothed with legitimacy in a peaceful manner.

6. Elections are means by which the government by which the government is formed, according to the wishes of the majority of the citizens and hence, their will provides strength and stability to the government.

Representation and its Forms

The word Representation is basically derived from the Roman word ‘Repraesentare’ which was used to mean the literal bringing into presence of something previously absent or the embodiment of an abstraction in an object.

The word representation in common parlance, therefore, refers to representing an interest or an issue backed by some individuals or groups.

Single Member Constituency

Under this system election results are determined on the basis of the relative majority of the votes polled and the candidate who is ahead of all other candidates even by a single vote gets elected even though a majority of voters do not vote in his favour.

The major defect of this system is that only the relative majority is taken into consideration. Since most of the contests are multi cornered sometimes a candidate securing as low as 30 or 40% of votes polled is declared elected, as a consequence a major portion of electorate remain unrepresented.

System of Proportional Representation

In order to tackle the defect of single member constituency system, various methods of proportional representation have been proposed. Under the proportional representation system the number of seats in the legislative body will be as nearly as possible in proportion to the votes cast for that party.

Proportional representation system is strongly supported by minority parties which suffer from the electoral distortions of the single member constituency system.

This system is very complex and cumbersome. It could promote, sharpen and consolidate the parochial loyalties based on caste, community, religion etc. it could also encourage fragmentation of our political parties.

There are various methods of proportional representation such as:

Single transferable vote – this system is used in case of upper house that is Rajya Sabha, State Legislative Councils and offices of President and Vice President. This system of representation is used in Ireland and Malta. Besides, in Australian Senate as well as Tasmania’s lower house the single transferable vote system is also followed. In this system each voter has a single vote.

Candidates reaching the quota from first preference votes are declared elected. If there are electorate seats to fill then the candidates receiving votes beyond the quota i.e the 'surplus votes' of these candidates-are redistributed to the second preferences of the voters. In case there still exist seats which needs to be filled, then the candidate ranked last is eliminated and his votes are transferred to the candidates ranked next on those votes. The process continues till the required number of candidates gets elected.

List system – In this system the candidates are grouped in lists according to the labels of their political parties. Each party submits a list of its chosen candidates equal to the number of seats to be filled up or even less than that.

Every single voter has got two effective votes – one to choose his constituency representative and other to choose between party lists. In the direct election from single member constituencies, the candidates who polls votes (majority) are the winners. The parties are allotted seats in proportion to the total number of votes secured by them in the second category of vote (the vote cast for party).

Two ballot system – In this system a candidate winning more than 50 per cent of the votes polled is elected. If no candidate secures this required percentage of votes the counting goes on in the second round. In the second round only top two candidates are allowed to contest. The two ballot system is followed in countries like France, Russia for the election of the post of President.

Social Determinants of Voting Behaviour

Voting is a means of aggregating individual preferences into collective decisions.

Voting’ as such is a function of immense significance for the voters, the candidates and students of politics. The study of voting behaviour has come to be regarded as an important aspect of contemporary political research and theory.

Voting behaviour refers to the area or field of study of political science which may be studied, scientifically and systematically by employing sophisticated techniques. The traditionalists were mainly concerned with the behaviour and functions of institutions, organisations etc.

Voting behaviour or electoral behaviour is closely associated with not only political behaviour but also with political participation. But while thinking in this line we must not forget that political behaviour or political participation are broadly used. Electoral behaviour is a part of them.

The relationship between socio-economic factors and voting behaviour has been often highlighted in innumerable election studies in different political systems. According to Sheth (Sheth1970:147), “If our (Indian) electorate has attained a certain level of political development, its voting decisions should be more and more influenced by political considerations as against primordial group considerations”.

The social determinants of voting behaviour in India are family and kinship, caste, factionalism , communalism, illiteracy, corruption. Apart these, certain other factors are present like age, sex, education, income and rural-urban composition of the people play an important role in influencing the voting behaviour.

1) Caste – Caste plays an important role in Indian society as well as in Indian political system. Its role in election cannot be ignored. In India, there are many places where local patterns of caste and affiliations decide the voting behaviour. People belonging to a particular caste tend to support or oppose a contesting candidate depending upon caste affiliations and local politics.

During elections, the local caste leaders play an important role in organizing and mobilizing support, forming favourable alliances and impelling voters to support a particular candidate or political party by offering them incentives. These local leaders in order to gather support for a particular candidate use all means – their influences, power and force to get votes for their candidate.

2) Religion – The establishment of a secular state in India by treating every religion as equal and non Recognition of any religion as a state religion, guaranteeing the right to freedom of religion to everyone – has not been successful in preventing the role of the religion as a determinant of political behaviour in general and voting behaviour in particular.

Religious pluralism of the Indian society is a major factorthat affect the Indian political system and greatly influences the struggle for power among political parties. Very often selection of candidates is done with an eye upon the presence of a religious majority in a particular constituency.

3) Language – India is a multilingual state. There are 22 official languages and several hundred other languages and dialects. Linguism also serves as a factor in voting behaviour. The organization of states on linguistic basis fully reflects the importance of language as a factor of politics in India.

Such problems are presenting in almost all the states since people have emotional attachment with their languages, they easily get influenced whenever there comes up any issue relating to language. Linguistic interest always influences voting behaviour.

4) Illiteracy – The problem of widespread illiteracy causes ignorance and prevents adequate understanding of various democratic practices and processes. Despite of several developmental steps including opening of schools and colleges across the country still illiteracy is a major problem. With illiterate population democracy based on adult franchise cannot serve the people properly.

5) Corruption – Widespread and increasing corruption is responsible for the rapid fall in moral value and distortion of the Indian polity. Sumantra Bose has observed that “the culture of corruption is deeply intertwined with the ways in which power is won, exercised and retained in India's democracy.”

the Election Commission has been unable to compel the political parties to keep its expenditures on campaigning within the legal limit. During elections a large sum of money is spent on the election campaigning and wooing the voters. But while filling returns most of the political parties quote false returns to the Commission.

6) Communalization – Communal politics in India has led to enormous bloodshed and misery to the vast majority of the people belonging to different religions. Even the sad and sudden partition of the country has not ended the communal politics.

If a party is bearing the name of a religion, race or caste then the party shall not be registered as a political party to contest elections. Besides a political party promoting communalism to gain unfair advantage in election should be debarred from contesting any election.

The political parties must keep in mind that India is a secular state, our constitution proclaims so and hence it becomes their duty to abide by the constitution and follow a secular policy to maintain peace and order in the society. There should be strict laws to stop the political parties from exploiting caste, communalism and regionalism to fulfil their ambition of holding political power. The tendency of exploiting caste, communal, religious sentiments of people would affect national unity and integrity and also communal harmony.

7) Money – The elections in India are becoming increasingly expensive. In order to woo voters candidates are spending excessively on campaigning, bribing poor people, spending on gun man, publicity, transport, and many other essential items of election campaign etc. each election is becoming more expensive than the preceding one.

Huge amounts are collected through illegal means by political parties and their candidates. Recent years experienced competitions between the political parties to spend more than their rival parties which have led to soaring of expenses beyond any limit. Further, the political parties are not maintaining the regular accounts of the party funds and donations received and the expenses incurred by it.

8) Muscle power – Violence, pre-election intimidation, booth capturing etc. are instances of muscle power. In states like Bihar, Western Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra etc use of muscle power during election is common. Criminalisation of politics and politicization of criminals are responsible for the manifestation of muscle power at elections. Through violence, force, threatening, creating fear in the mind of voters the political parties try to collect maximum vote in order to win elections.

These are thus the important determinants of voting behavior in India. The continuity in the operation of India’s political system as a developing democratic political system is gradually training the Indian voters. The process of emergence of an issue based political struggle in place of a caste or religion or personality dominated struggle for power is very slowly but gradually taking shape.

It is a means through which people express and enforce their political opinion and regulate political organization of the society. It also depends upon whether the system allows freedom of thought, expression and association to the people. Mere presence of an electoral system does not make a political system democratic. The will of people is expressed through voting in elections and therefore, all undemocratic and unfair means like manipulating and rigging need to be avoided in the elections. No such action is taken which would in any way undermine the popular will expressed through elections.

Importance of election–

1. Election provides an opportunity to the voters, to choose party they like.

2. It enriches the personality of the citizens by giving every citizen a sense of responsibility.

3. The elections lead to increasing political consciousness.

4. Elections reflect the mind and aspirations of the electorates.

5. Through elections the authority of the government is clothed with legitimacy in a peaceful manner.