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"New Welfare Policy and Democratic Politics in India offers an analysis of India's welfare policy during the last couple of decades. It looks at how welfare policy making is viewed as a function of party competition and voter mobilization, showing a gradual transformation of political clients into entitled citizens through which democratic politics in India has redefined its contemporary welfare discourse. The book argues that political parties formulate policies in order to respond to the voices of citizens and shows that a new welfare architecture emerged in India, characterized as responsive welfare. India has witnessed a sharp rise in such voices, which have been disadvantaged by a globalizing market. The size and vulnerability of this group has made them politically significant and electorally salient. These welfare aspirants have found a new political space through political parties to negotiate and assert their claims on the state, creating a milestone in India's democratic politics trajectory, in the form of entitlement-based welfare policy. The book compares and evaluates the implications of these new welfare policies in the contexts of two governments: the Congress-led government during 2009-2014 and the BJP-led government during 20014-2019. The empirical data reveal remarkable similarities in their electoral pledges, policy outputs, policy outcomes and accountability towards citizens. These findings indicate significant convergence in their welfare policies, sans ideology or ethnic support base. It also reveals that the ideological differences among the two major parties do not prevent remarkable continuities in the formulation and implementation of welfare policies during their incumbencies, thus allowing for a bipartisan acceptance of a citizen-centric welfare policy. Offering a new analysis to understand this citizen-party-policy linkage in the formulation of welfare policy in India, the book presents a macro analysis of India's interface between democratic politics and welfare policy. It will be of interest to researchers in the fields of the politics of welfare, democratisation in changing societies, comparative politics and Indian and South Asian Studies and Asian Politics"--

This article is an attempt to assess the extent of convergence in the policies of two major national political parties in India – Congress and the BJP – by examining their electoral pledges as expressed in their manifestoes during the last three general elections. We assumed that political parties take a stand on various policies to influence the opinion of the electorate. We arrive at the following conclusions. (1) Both the parties tend to respond to the needs of the marginalized – most of whom happen to be located at the median points of electorally salient policies. (2) Many of their promises in the areas of welfare policy are almost identical. The two parties hardly contradict each other on any of the major policies. (3) The beneficiaries of welfare policies tend to vote for a party that is formulating a favourable policy and is providing good governance. There is new trend in political representation in India. The needs and expectations of citizens are emerging as the primary determinants in the policy formulation of political parties.

This article is an attempt to analyze the nature of transformation in the Indian political parties and to rethink their role in the contemporary times. That parties are motivated to 'serve' the people and inspired to 'win' elections is well documented. However, there are counter-examples of parties serving people at a price or being equally powerful even while losing elections. Forming or sustaining a party seems to be a survival strategy for political activists. Politics has become a business-like preoccupation. The recent climate of competition has led to the emergence of sizable rent-seeking professional leaders. They calculate the returns on the political and economic investments made, which is not confined to a zero-sum game of winning elections. There are pay-offs even when one loses an election. Being in politics, a party activist has a distinct identity that could reap dividends in the form of prestige, status and accessibility. These could be converted to pecuniary benefits. Parties look like business firms in a political market.

India's Right to Information Act (2005) has brought about a quiet revolution in her quest for good governance. Any citizen can seek information from government and thereby demand transparency and accountability in governance. The Act is the result of a movement at the grassroots level organized by the poor and the marginalized. If properly implemented, this Act will be the initial first step in establishing a deliberative democracy. Adapted from the source document.

Abstract:
India's Right to Information Act (2005) has brought about a quiet revolution in her quest for good governance. Any citizen can seek information from government and thereby demand transparency and accountability in governance. The Act is the result of a movement at the grassroots level organized by the poor and the marginalized. If properly implemented, this Act will be the initial first step in establishing a deliberative democracy.

This paper is a preliminary attempt to understand a simple puzzle about the Indian voter: Why does a voter vote for party X or Y in an election? What parameters does s/he use to evaluate parties and their policies? Or, does s/he look at the parties through the lenses of other cultural institutions? How does s/he calculate the payoff to the society and/or to herself/himself in this momentous action? This author was amazed by the absence any substantive studies on the subject.

Abstract. This study is an attempt to explain redistributive policy changes in democratic political systems. The two major competing paradigms of such determinants are the 'political environments matter' hypothesis and the economic resources model. This study attempts to show that there is an interdependent or exchange relationship between the choices of the policy makers and the policy takers, and that the periodic elections and the parties are important institutional mechanisms which make the exchange relationship possible. Several propositions about the conditions of policy change emerge from the assumptions about the behaviour of the policy makers and the policy takers. These propositions along with those emerging from the socio‐economic and the political factors are tested using data from 21 contemporary democratic regimes beteen 1952–1980. The two dependent variables in the model are expenditures on the direct transfers to the households, and revenue from the direct taxes. Multiple regression analyses are utilized in the statistical tests. These analyses confirm the contention that political exchange plays an important part as a determinant of policy outcomes. It explains as much, if not more, variation in the model as the socio‐economic or political environment variables.

A discussion of redistributive policy changes in democratic political systems. Two major competing paradigms of such determinants are the political environments matter hypothesis & the economic resources model. It is argued that there is an interdependent or exchange relationship between the choices of the policymakers & the policy takers (ie, those benefiting from policy changes), & that periodic elections & political parties are important institutional mechanisms that make the exchange relationship possible. Several propositions about the behavior of policymakers & policy takers, & the influence of SE & political factors, are tested using statistics on 21 contemporary democratic regimes between 1952 & 1980. The 2 dependent variables in the model are expenditures on direct transfers to households, & revenue from direct taxes. Multiple regression analyses confirm the contention that political exchange plays an important role as a determinant of policy outcomes. It also explains as much of the variation in the model as the SE or political environment variables. 2 Tables, 2 Appendixes, 40 References. Modified HA