in 1990s were years of very significant change in post independence India.with the transformation of a competitive multi party system,it became near impossible for any single party to form a government of its own ,since 1989,all governments that has formed at the national level have been either coalition or majority government.interpret on it
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The Indian party system has undergone a dramatic transformation in the last decade. This essay is a preliminary attempt at making sense of this transformation. It delineates the major trends in the party system in the period 1989-99, empirically details them, and relates these developments to the theoretical literature on the determinants of party systems. Finally, it outlines some of the consequences of party system change for policy outcomes.
A quick outline of major trends in the party system in the last decade must include the following developments:
1. The single most important development in this period has been the decline of the Congress, for long the inevitable nodal reference point of both political practice and theoretical reflection on Indian politics. It is true that the Congress has, in purely electoral terms, shown that it is capable of rebounding successfully – witness the results of a number of Assembly elections. But it has been definitively dislodged from the position of the center around which all political calculations must of necessity revolve.
2. The trend towards federalization of the party system,1 a trend already strong in the 1980s, has been substantially deepened. It made its presence felt at the Centre for the first time with the National Front government in 1989 and has become a trend that shows every sign of enduring. Consequently, despite coalition and/or minority governments and related cabinet instability at the Centre, the state level has seen the maturing of bipolar party systems in a majority of states.
3. This decade saw a sharp rise in political mobilization on the basis of social cleavages based on ascriptive identities, in particular of religion and caste.
4. Central to parliamentary government is the process of government formation and the constitution of the cabinet. In this decade, this process resulted in, variously, majority coalition, minority coalition, and single-party minority governments. In addition, by rational anticipation of the verdict of a hung Parliament, a number of parties have veered towards what can well be labeled an ‘alliance culture’. Alliances have become part of the accepted rules of the game, rather than something to be resorted to in exceptional moments.
We now detail selected empirical facts about the party system in the 1989-99 period to examine whether these patterns can be put into an analytically coherent framework.2 Since explanation and description can hardly be separated, it is best to make clear what theoretical issues the description is meant to the foreground.
The issues are two. The first is the influence of institutional variables in shaping the evolution of the party system. There are two institutions that need to be considered: the electoral system and the federal character of the state. They need to be considered jointly because, in ways to be spelled out, it is not each in isolation but both working in conjunction that produces their effect: a party system which produces coalition and/or minority governments at the national level, but at the state level yields two-party or more generally bipolar systems. The second issue relates to the role of social cleavages, or more precisely how these cleavages are ‘particised’ through the dynamic of party competition. The trajectory of the party system in India, I argue, can best be made sense of in terms of these two factors. But for now, it is necessary to move to the empirical details.