Recognition Rules, Party Labels and the Number of Parties in India: A Research Note

In: Party politics: an international journal for the study of political parties and political organizations, Volume 14, Issue 2, p. 211-222

Abstract

This Research Note offers an alternative explanation for the variation over time in the number of parties in India's national party system. It is argued that the actual number of parties has changed in direct response to the incentives provided by the official rules and regulations on party recognition. In turn, the raw number of parties has shaped the effective number of parties positively: the more parties enter the electoral race the weaker the reductive impact of the plurality electoral system, which leads to an increase in the effective number of parties.