Electoral Competition and Participation in India: A Test of Huntington's Hypothesis

Abstract

The relationship between party competition and electoral participation has been the object of considerable study.l Interpretations, however, are almost as varied as the quantitative results. An obvious challenge lies in the complexity of party competition. Questions arise, for example, not only as to whether closer competition tends to be associated with higher turnout but also as to whether turnout varies with biparty and multiparty types of competition. There is, of course, sheer informational value in determining whether participation is higher or lower with bipartism or multipartism; but there is little theoretical basis for assuming that participation should vary either way under the different competitive situations. How such covariation may itself be related to the determinants and consequences of competition and participation is still another question. Samuel P. Huntington is one of the few scholars to have examined the relationships between party competition and electoral participation from a comparative perspective. The purpose of this article is to test Huntington's propositions using returns for the first four general elections in India.2 Along the way, I shall attempt to clarify some ambiguities in