Party Retrenchment and Political Centralisation in India

Successful regional parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and Trinamool Congress (TMC) have dramatically different social bases and political histories, yet structurally they look quite similar—ideologically amorphous and centred around leaders and their families. What explains the emergence of this structural form in India’s party system? 

To address this question, I introduce a model of “party retrenchment,” in which resource constraints oblige smaller political parties to respond to the factionalism and candidate promiscuity endemic in Indian politics by centralising authority in a dominant leader. Party retrenchment implicitly engenders direct accountability-based linkages between citizens and the leader at the top, instead of between citizens and their local representatives, while minimising political uncertainty due to political defection and factionalism. 

To demonstrate the logic of the model, I trace the historical evolution of India’s party system from the era of Congress dominance and ideologically-oriented opposition to a more fragmented, ideologically-inchoate landscape comprised of small, leader-driven parties exhibiting high levels of party retrenchment. I argue that the Emergency was a “critical juncture,” in which an explicitly ideologically inchoate coalition emerged under the banner of the Janata Party. The inevitable fracturing of the Janata Party, combined with changes in the resource environment for parties, generated the conditions for the emergence of leader-driven, regional parties.

Finally, I discuss how the model of party retrenchment can help us understand the role that Prime Minister Narendra Modi plays in Indian politics, as well as its implications for democratic accountability and political representation in India.