Do Muslim voters prefer Muslim candidates?: Co-religiosity and voting behaviour in India

• Oliver Heath ^[1] ; Gilles Verniers ^[2] ; Sanjay Kumar ^[3]
  1. [1] University of London

     University of London

     Reino Unido

     
  2. [2] Ashoka University

     Ashoka University

     India

     
  3. [3] Centre for the Study of Developing Societies

     Centre for the Study of Developing Societies

     India

     

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• Localización: Electoral Studies: An international Journal, ISSN 0261-3794, Nº 38, 2015, págs. 10-18
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Does candidate religion influence vote choice? And if so, under what conditions does religion matter? In this contribution we provide the first systematic analysis of the impact of candidate religion on voting behaviour in an ethnically divided democracy: Uttar Pradesh, North India. The results from a series of conditional logit models shows that Muslims are more likely to vote for Muslim candidates, but only when those candidates have a realistic chance of winning – there is thus a strong strategic element to their vote calculus. Moreover, there is no evidence that Hindus discriminate against Muslim candidates, or that parties face an electoral penalty for fielding a Muslim candidate.