Blog 7: Duverger’s Law

Duverger’s law states that the number of effective parties is directly proportionate to what electoral rule that country has. If a country has SMDP electoral rule, they will have two effective parties. If a country has proportional representation electoral rule, then there will be multiple effective parties. Duverger’s law seems to hold true for countries such as India that has a proportional representation system.  

            In India, they have a proportional representation electoral rule. A proportional representation is one where votes directly correlate to votes for those running for office. In the last parliamentary election, in 2009, there were over 39 parties that received votes for Lok Sabha, which is India’s lower house (Inter-parliamentary Union). However, after using the Neff calculations, out of the 39 parties, there were only 5.3 effective parties in the last election. This is proof that proportional representation allows for more parties, and more specifically, effective parties. Whereas countries that have SMDP electoral rule, such as the United States, only have two effective parties. 

India also works under a pluralistic framework for their formula to allot seats to districts (Lok Sabha).  This means that the candidate with the most votes win; they don’t have to win a 50% to 1 to win the election. Rather, it is simply whoever wins the larges percentage of the votes wins the seat. There is also no threshold in India regarding a minimum percent of votes you have to have to retain your party. If there are enough votes, then that party is put back on the ballots, or if there is a lack of votes, then the party is taken off of the ballots. There is nothing that gives requirements regarding numbers and parties in India.

The District Magnitude (M) is at least one for any district in India, however it varies with the population (Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform). If there are more people, then there will be more seats in any given district, and if there are less people, then they will have fewer seats for that district. Currently, there are 548 seats in the Lok Sabha, or House of the People (Lok Sabha) representing different regions in the entire country. Often times in India people will vote in clusters, voting for those from their region of India.

India’s system also has an open structure where those who are voting have some influence over the location of those who are running’s placement on the voting sheet.  Voters can also choose a party on the ballot rather than choosing individuals from that party who are running. This can make it easier and simpler if someone votes along party lines instead of by politician (Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform). Many people in India vote a long party lines rather than trying to know all of the politicians.

To run the elections, India set up a special commission in their constitution called the Election Commission of India. This commission sets up the elections and makes sure that they run smoothly (Election Commission of India). They also advertise and try to get people to the voting poles. In the last election, out of the 738, 773, 666 who were of voting age, only 58.19% of them actually voted (IDEA).  However, this was an increase of the percentage of voting compared to previous years.

India is a prime example of a country that follows Duverger’s Law. They have proportional representation, and this allows them to have multiple effective parties. After

using the Neff formula, India had 5.3 effective parties. Therefore, Duverger’s Law has been proven to be true in India’s case because they have more than two effective parties. 

REFERENCES:

Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform. “The Language of Electoral Systems.” http://www.citizensassembly.gov.on.ca/en-CA/docs/Weekend%20Three/The%20Language%20of%20Electoral%20Systems.pdf

Election Commission of India. 2010. “About ECI” http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/the_setup.aspx Retrieved 2 November 2012. 

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). 2010. “Voter Turnout Data for India.” http://www.idea.int/vt/countryview.cfm?CountryCode=IN Retrieved 2 November 2012

Inter-Parliamentary Union. 2012. “India: Lok Sabha (House of the People)” http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/2145_E.htm Retrieved 2 November 2012.

Lok Sabha Secretariat. "Lok Sabha". Parliament of India. Retrieved 26 May 2012