A rich theoretical literature argues that, in contradiction to the Duverger's law, the plurality voting rule can fail to produce two-party system when voters do not share common information about the electoral situation. We present an empirical operationalization and a series of tests of this...

The 73rd amendment to the Indian Constitution launched an extensive experiment in local democracy. Based on a study of 2794 gram panchayats and field observations in West Bengal, this article examines when and why popular participation in panchayat elections – the most basic and visible aspect...

Over 250,000 farmers have committed suicide in India since the mid-1990s. Studies – both case studies of states and at the individual-level - attribute these deaths to credit crunches in the agrarian sector and increased debt burden among farmers. Most of the farm suicides have, however, taken...

Decentralization advances patronage politics in distinct ways. First, in decentralized states both central and local politicians distribute patronage to enhance their political support. Second, local elections reveal information to central leaders about the geographic distribution of electorally...

Over 250,000 farmers have committed suicide in India since the mid-1990s. Studies – both case studies of states and at the individual-level - attribute these deaths to credit crunches in the agrarian sector and increased debt burden among farmers. Most of the farm suicides have, however, taken...

Successive national governments in India have invoked an emergency constitutional provision to impose direct central rule in states over 100 times since 1950. However, such central government usurpation of state governance has declined since the mid-1990s. This essay demonstrates how India's...

The paper proposes a mechanism explaining how elections may stabilize an autocratic regime even if they are evidently unfree and unfair. Instead of being meaningless rituals, non-democratic elections can help the autocrats in managing and communicating the public information about the regime's...