Product Description
India has transformed and much has happened since the first Lok Sabha elections in 1951–52. Social media, AI and other technologies make it easy to spin narratives and evade accountability, and to glibly manufacture content, data and analysis. These threaten the development of a responsible civil society.
But then what really matters to voters? Times may have changed, but the substantive basis on which people vote – their perception of leadership and the improvement in their well-being – remains constant. Economist Surjit S.
Bhalla integrates politics, economics and psephology to offer insights into how voters think as India heads into its eighteenth general election.
This book examines historical voting patterns and reveals how these correlate to changes in income, employment, welfare schemes, gender equality and much else. It looks at future conundrums like delimitation. It considers how voter attitudes have changed. This deep dive into data comes up with some counter-intuitive conclusions. Whichever way the 2024 elections go, the reader will gain a better understanding of the hows and whys of voter choices.
Customer Reviews
When I started reading the book I thought it would be covering the voting system from the just-got-our-independence days till the current year. While Surjit has included the range of years post independence and the recent decade of BJP government; there have been references to the coalition government also. The impact of the Modi years is being touched upon more the book. The reason could be that it’s the most recent memory of a government that people can recollect or think about.
If you read this book expecting predictions about election outcomes then you need not pick up this book please!
Read this book to –
Understand the factors influencing voting behaviors
Growth and educational impact
Gender behavior during the voting months
Poverty and income correlation with employment opportunities and promises
GDP might be a good word to use but difficult to understand in terms of voting
International viewpoints about India and her growth story
