| Democratic Dynasties: State, Party, and Family in Contemporary Indian Politics Contributor(s): Chandra, Kanchan (Editor) |
|
 |
ISBN: 1107558913 ISBN-13: 9781107558915 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $39.89 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2017 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Political Science | World - Asian - Political Science | Political Process - General - Political Science | Political Ideologies - Democracy |
| Dewey: 320.954 |
| LCCN: 2015033498 |
| Physical Information: 0.63" H x 6" W x 9" (0.89 lbs) 302 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Indian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Dynastic politics, usually presumed to be the antithesis of democracy, is a routine aspect of politics in many modern democracies. This book introduces a new theoretical perspective on dynasticism in democracies, using original data on twenty-first-century Indian parliaments. It argues that the roots of dynastic politics lie at least in part in modern democratic institutions - states and parties - which give political families a leg-up in the electoral process. It also proposes a rethinking of the view that dynastic politics is a violation of democracy, showing that it can also reinforce some aspects of democracy while violating others. Finally, this book suggests that both reinforcement and violation are the products, not of some property intrinsic to political dynasties, but of the institutional environment from which those dynasties emerge. |
Contributor Bio(s): Chandra, Kanchan: - Kanchan Chandra is Professor of Politics at New York University. She is lead author of Constructivist Theories of Ethnic Politics (2012), author of Why Ethnic Parties Succeed: Patronage and Ethnic Headcounts in India (2004), and has written articles for several leading journals. Her work has been supported by fellowships and grants from the Princeton Program on Democracy and Development, the Carnegie and Guggenheim Foundations, the National Science Foundation, the United States Institute of Peace, the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioural Sciences at Stanford University, Connecticut, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. |