Party Cadres and Receptive Partisan Voters in the 1967 Indian National Elections

Abstract

]he data gathered in the 1967 Indian National Election project permit systematic study of the workings of electoral democracy-as exemplified by India's fourth free and seriously-contested national election since achieving independence-in a setting quite different from the American and European cases heretofore available for intensive quantitative study.' Two interdependent questions can be explored. First, what differences are linked to the partisan receptivity of ordinary voters for certain electoral appeals and political symbols ? Second, what are the distinctive contributions to an electoral campaign made by those who interact directly with voters and who thus personalize their party's campaign message, in contrast with their colleagues at trans-local levels Who specialize in intramural communication between echelons of the party structure? These questions are interdependent. Wherever possible they need to be investigated jointly. Cadre efforts are significant largely in light of voter response patterns. Conversely, election-day choices as understood by the voters have largely been structured by ithe efforts of rival campaign organizations. The party system of modern India had stabilized around an acceptance of Congress as the party with an historic mission to perform, and the acceptance ,of a gadfly role by the activists and supporters of India's many opposi-