Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Four Vectors of Political Parties
In India there are four vectors of political parties. They are parties primarily based on :
1. Caste
2. Religion
3. Region
4. Class
The core appeal for all parties is one or more of the above. In that sense, the Congress is the only party which has an appeal across all vectors.
The question is that which of these vectors will remain viable over the next 20-30 years and which ones will fade away into oblivion. For example, one can postulate that caste will become increasingly unimportant in a rapidly urbanising country.
One answer to that question can be looking at the experience of other parts of the world and see which way have they gone. After a lengthy discussion, here are a few thoughts that I will leave right now and come back later for validation.
- The caste vector will rapidly merge into the class vector. At the end of the day, the caste divide will only become an economic one where the lower castes will want to have more economic independence.
- The religion vector will continue to remain as an important element but the distribution of religions of India is such that the core minority vote banks will be it might increasingly splinter into different parties who want to focus on the 'minority' vote.
-The region vector is the only one that will have to continue to have it's appeal for some more time. Since India is very plural in terms of language, customs etc this will continue to be an important dynamic. Regional parties will continue to pull in considerable heft as they look to secure their 'pound of flesh' from the central govt.
1. Caste
2. Religion
3. Region
4. Class
The core appeal for all parties is one or more of the above. In that sense, the Congress is the only party which has an appeal across all vectors.
The question is that which of these vectors will remain viable over the next 20-30 years and which ones will fade away into oblivion. For example, one can postulate that caste will become increasingly unimportant in a rapidly urbanising country.
One answer to that question can be looking at the experience of other parts of the world and see which way have they gone. After a lengthy discussion, here are a few thoughts that I will leave right now and come back later for validation.
- The caste vector will rapidly merge into the class vector. At the end of the day, the caste divide will only become an economic one where the lower castes will want to have more economic independence.
- The religion vector will continue to remain as an important element but the distribution of religions of India is such that the core minority vote banks will be it might increasingly splinter into different parties who want to focus on the 'minority' vote.
-The region vector is the only one that will have to continue to have it's appeal for some more time. Since India is very plural in terms of language, customs etc this will continue to be an important dynamic. Regional parties will continue to pull in considerable heft as they look to secure their 'pound of flesh' from the central govt.
# posted by Abhijat @ 8:50 PM 
