Determinants of Political Behaviour of People of India–Principles or Individual Interest

Abstract

In a democratic system, elected political representatives of different political parties could form government and its opposition, and only electorate rights of the people determine the formation of the government. In the present study, the determinants of people’s political behavior to support one particular political party were examined. Accordingly, 200 villagers aged 20–60 years from a village named Babalpur of Borgordar Godar Gram Panchayat under Nandakumar Block of East Midnapore district, West Bengal, India, were randomly selected through stratified sampling. Structured interview schedules and case studies were used to collect data on their views on political parties, causes of affiliation to a particular party, magnitude of participation, their attitude towards alternation of their affiliation, etc., besides their personal background. It was found that the majority of the subjects were not familiar with the principles of their affiliated political party. For the fulfillment of their individual interest in relation to their overwhelming needs in this consumer world, 76% of the subjects had altered their affiliation to political parties similar to the Theory of Vomiting. Furthermore, it was noted that broken inter and intrapersonal relationship among individuals and its consequences reflected through violence, which could never yield a better India. Thus, this is the crisis of democracy, which is speculated to become more severe.