Compulsory Voting In India: Issues and Analysis

The idea of making voting compulsory in response to declining voter turnout in elections have been debated for many years. This section attempts to cover the issue of compulsory voting and its implementation in detail. Attempts in the past to ..

Opinion Polls in India and ECI Guidelines

Pre-election opinion polls and exit polls have become a regular feature in the last one and half decades within the Indian electoral landscape. Opinion polls are conducted by polling agencies and disseminated widely by the electronic and print media ECI ..

Determinants of Voting Behavior in India

Voting behavior reflect the ways in which people tend to vote in public elections and why they vote in that particular way. It also reflects the voter’s choices, preferences, ideologies, concerns, alternatives etc. Article 326 of the Indian Constitution grants ..

Issue of Bringing Political Parties under RTI

In June 2013, CIC via an order had declared the political parties as public authorities and brought them under the RTI Act. It also asked them to appoint appellate bodies to answer RTI queries.  Under Section 2(h) of the RTI ..

Whip In India

Whip is an official appointed to maintain discipline among, secure attendance of, and give necessary information to, members of his party. The other functions are as follows: Serve as channel of communication between party and its members Gauge the opinion ..

Anti-defection Law & 10th Schedule Explained

Anti-Defection Law is contained in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which was introduced by the 52nd Amendment in 1985 during tenure of Rajiv Gandhi. Earlier, 10th schedule was related to association of Sikkim with India. Once, Sikkim became full fledged ..

First Past the Post (FPTP) and Proportional Representation (PR) Debate

Under First Past the Post (FPTP) system, a candidate who gets one vote more than other candidate (who comes second) is declared as winner. In proportional representation, number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate ..

Inner Party Democracy

Democratic theory includes both procedural and substantive democracy. Procedural democracy can be said to refer to the practice of universal adult franchise, periodic elections, secret ballot. Substantive democracy can be said to refer to the internal democratic functioning of the ..