Ignorant Voters or Credible Representatives?: Why Voters Support Criminal Politicians in India

CASI-Related Event
Milan Vaishnav & Neelanjan Sircar
Associate, South Asia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and CASI Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Center for the Advanced Study of India
3600 Market Street, Suite 560 (5th floor)
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104

 

The coexistence of democratic elections and corrupt or criminal legislators poses a quandary for social science. Two divergent hypotheses have been advanced to explain this apparent paradox: information asymmetries facing voters and the enhanced credibility of tainted politicians, which is often filtered through an identity politics lens. In this lecture, Drs. Vaishnav and Sircar adjudicate between these explanations, drawing on a large social attitudes survey from India, a consolidated democracy that features high rates of criminality in politics. Their results support a credibility narrative, one that situates the credibility of bad politicians in the context of deep social divisions.

Co-sponsored with Political Science Department Comparative Politics Seminar.

 

The Nand & Jeet Khemka Distinguished Lecture Series is an endowed public program of the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI). Launched in the 2007-08 academic year, and made possible through the generous support of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, the series brings renowned India specialists to the Penn community and serves as a critical forum for analyzing and understanding the complex economic, political, social, and cultural changes that the world’s largest democracy is experiencing, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
The Saluja Global Fellows Program has been made possible by the generous gift from Vishal Saluja ENG’89 W’89. CASI was excited to launch the program during the 2022–23 academic year, coinciding with the Center’s 30th Anniversary. This new program enables CASI to invite eminent leaders and rising experts on contemporary India preferably from the fields of media, culture, law, and contemporary history to be in residence for one to two weeks at CASI.