Assistant Professor of Political Science @TempleUniv. Comparative politics, India, political parties, elections.
May 23, 2019 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
And (finally) a slightly epic thread on voting behavior: What motivated voters? Honestly, we won’t know for a long time. But, reducing the 2019 election to a “Modi wave”--whatever that means--is probably a pretty big oversimplification. (1/15)
Despite a huge increase in excellent work in this area--by many people I mention below and more!--we still don’t have a great understanding of voting behavior in India, which makes quickly putting this election in perspective is really hard. (2/15)
May 23, 2019 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
A thread on the 2014 and 2019 elections: Many hailed the 2014 election as historic. It really wasn’t. At least not at the time. It may well have laid the groundwork for 2019, but 2019 is a much, much bigger deal. (1/12)
Why wasn’t 2014 as groundbreaking an election as many thought? 1. BJP vote share in 2014 was about where Congress’ was in 2009 (~30%)—nothing historic, even if an all-time high for the BJP. (2/12)
