Although democracy is, in principle, the antithesis of dynastic rule, families with multiple
members in elective office continue to be common around the world. In most democracies …

Today, regional parties in India win nearly as many votes as national parties. In Why
Regional Parties?, Professor Adam Ziegfeld questions the conventional wisdom that …

The 2003 Bollywood film Satta (Power) charts the life of a fictional character, Anuradha
Sehgal, a young middle class woman who is catapulted into politics by her conservative …

Personality-centric politics has been a significant part of discussions on social media's
impact on electoral politics. In this study, we quantified personalization in mainstream …

Omar Abdullah became a Member of Parliament in 1998. Two years later, he became a
Cabinet minister in the national government. Eleven years later, he became Chief Minister of …

The formal basis of dynastic rule in India was abolished three times over after India obtained
independence in 1947, first with the integration of “princely states” into the Indian union, then …

Political dynasties now exist among all social and ethnic groups in India (Chandra, Chapter
1 of this volume). The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), the two …

The “Forward Castes,” as we have seen already, are the principal beneficiaries of dynastic
politics in the Indian parliament. In each of the three parliaments elected between 2004 and …

Early one morning in March 2014, just prior to the national elections in India, a chai-wallah
(tea vendor) in Jaipur in Western Rajasthan was serving cups of sweet milky tea as usual …