Criminality and Malfeasance among National Legislators in Contemporary India

Utilizing a new dataset that reports criminal charges against candidates to India's Fourteenth Lok Sabha in the 2004 national legislative elections, we study the conditions that resulted in nearly a quarter of those elected facing or having previously faced criminal charges. We show that Indian political parties are more likely to select criminals to run as candidates in electoral districts with more uninformed voters and when parties face greater electoral uncertainty, which we operationalize as a closer vote margin. The latter finding runs against a large literature that shows that more electoral competition results in improved political accountability. We offer a preliminary interpretation of our findings and suggest paths for additional investigation