Fragmentation and Performance: The Indian Case

Abstract

While the transformation of the Indian party system from a predominant party system to a highly fragmented multi-party system has been investigated, less attention has been paid to the political consequences of this change. By analysing an original data set, this paper investigates how the fragmentation of the Indian party system has affected the stability of Indian legislatures, their ability to legislate, and the quality of the law-making process. The analysis reveals that as fragmentation increased, legislatures became more unstable, produced less legislation, and the quality of the law-making process declined. The paper further suggests that these changes may be the reason that Indian voters may have less confidence in parliament.