Dynamics of One-Party Dominance in an Indian State

Abstract

A one-party dominance system does not preclude political competition, because minor national or regional parties constantly pose a threat to the dominant party;1 it only makes competition unequal. It is a system in which parties exist legally but, for reasons largely unrelated to legal questions of government coercion, find themselves unable to challenge effectively the dominant party's hold on public power.2 The dominant party, a characteristic of many developing countries, is called upon to undertake the task of nation-building, which includes stabilizing the political regime, developing a sense of national integration, resolving the participation crisis and promoting economic development. However, many social scientists raise doubts about the viability of a democratic political system in developing countries where one political party dominates the political scene. As Shils argues, the dominant party does not permit the growth of responsible opposition, on the one hand the party itself ages, becoming soft and perhaps corrupt, and on the other hand it increasingly fails to satisfy public demands. With growing public discontent, the dominant party falls from power and its disintegration starts. Therewith the unity of the nation is endangered and the oppositional mentality comes once more into active influence.3 The emergence of a dominant party is thus supposed to be detrimental to national unity and to the stability of the political system in developing countries. The assertion of Sir Ivor Jennings that if there is no opposition, there is no democracy4 underscores this view. The argument that the existence of institutionalized opposition in the form of parties is a sine qua non of a democratic political system is no doubt reinforced by the experience of several Western countries. But it must be emphasized here that the fate of democracy in the developing countries is bound not so much to the emergence of a functioning twoor multi-party system as to the capacity of the dominant party to successfully