Devesh Kapur and Milan Vaishnav, eds. Costs of Democracy: Political Finance in India

Abstract

Most Indian voters will tell you that there are three things a politician needs to succeed: Media, muscle, and money. Costs of Democracy focusses on the latter and, by doing so, addresses a lacuna in our understanding of electoral dynamics in the world’s largest democracy. In contrast to the two other indispensable “M”s that a politician needs to emerge victorious, money and its role in shaping Indian political life remains understudied. Thus, the importance of the media—both conventional and...