Tag Search: “democracy”
Do politicians receive special treatment in courts?
Do Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) facing pending criminal cases receive favourable treatment in the Indian legal system? This article uncovers opposite effects of winning office, depending o...
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Rubén Poblete-Cazenave
26 August, 2019
- Articles
Do roads bring votes in rural India?
A large-scale rural roads programme in India has provided access to over two-third of villages that lacked a paved road in 2001. Do citizens reward incumbent governments electorally for these improvem...
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Tanushree Goyal
26 April, 2019
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Oral democracy
Critical scrutiny of the challenges of electoral democracy including elite capture, corruption, and patronage has led to a revival of the idea of direct democracy – giving power directly to groups of ...
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Vijayendra Rao
Paromita Sanyal
24 April, 2019
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Parikshit Ghosh speaks with Debraj Ray
In this podcast, Parikshit Ghosh (Member of the I4I Editorial Board & Associate Professor, Delhi School of Economics) speaks with Debraj Ray (Julius Silver Professor, Faculty of Arts and Science, and ...
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Parikshit Ghosh
Debraj Ray
13 February, 2018
- Podcasts
The state of the economy and mass perception
In this article, Ashwini Kulkarni of NGO Pragati Abhiyan contends that the media should tap into the knowledge of practitioners that are familiar with the ground realities of social sector schemes – r...
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Ashwini Kulkarni
19 May, 2017
- Perspectives
A proposal for public funding of elections and political parties in India
The Finance Minister of India recently introduced measures aimed at cleaning up political party funding in the country. In this article, Gowda and Santhosh highlight the limitations of these measures,...
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M.V. Rajeev Gowda
Varun Santhosh
21 April, 2017
- Perspectives
Consumption spikes and election delays
There is ample anecdotal evidence on political parties bribing voters with cash or consumption goods prior to elections, in India and other developing countries. However, there is an expected lack of ...
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Shabana Mitra
Anirban Mitra
Arnab Mukherji
20 April, 2017
- Articles
Do Gram Panchayat leaders favour their own constituencies in MNREGA fund allocation?
Political incentives are known to play a role in the allocation of public resources from upper- to lower-tier governments. This column seeks to examine whether ruling parties in local governments favo...
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Subhasish Dey
Kunal Sen
19 December, 2016
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Politician's pain is poor man's gain: Income distribution in close-election constituencies
Studies have highlighted the role of electoral competition in directing the flow of public funds. Analysing data from India, this column finds lower income inequality and polarisation in tightly conte...
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Shabana Mitra
Anirban Mitra
09 November, 2016
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Courting women's votes: What does this mean for women?
In the recent state assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, political parties targeted women voters with specific handouts and proposed policies such as alcohol bans. This column contends that while the in...
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Sarah Khan
01 July, 2016
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Does democracy cause growth?
Many analysts view democracy as a neutral or negative factor for growth. This column discusses new evidence showing that democracy has a robust and sizeable pro-growth effect. It finds that a country ...
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Daron Acemoglu
Suresh Naidu
Pascual Restrepo
James Robinson
03 June, 2016
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Impact of Electronic Voting Machines on electoral frauds, democracy, and development
In an attempt to curb electoral malpractices, Electronic Voting Machines were introduced on a national scale by the Election Commission of India in the 1990s. Using data from state assembly elections ...
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Sisir Debnath
19 May, 2016
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