Enfranchisement, Political Participation, and Political Competition: Evidence from Colonial and Independent India

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: University of Namur; University of Notre Dame; University of Kent
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050725000038
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 33-71
• 关键词: franchise extension; Voting franchise; womens suffrage; DEMOCRACY; size; responsiveness; institutions; provision; ELECTIONS; education

摘要

We examine how political participation and political competition are shaped by two class-based extensions of the franchise in twentieth-century India. Creating a new dataset of district-level political outcomes between 1920 and 1957, we find that both the partial franchise extension of 1935 and the universal suffrage reform of 1950 led to limited increases in citizen participation as voters or candidates, and neither reform had a significant effect on increasing political competition. Despite the limited effects on political outcomes, districts with greater enfranchisement increases experienced higher education provision by provincial governments.