Who gets unequal parliamentary representation? A comparison of India and Sri Lanka

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

9-2012

Abstract

In 2010, India celebrated its 60th anniversary as a democracy and Sri Lanka held its first post-civil war election. Yet, inequalities in parliamentary representation remain strong in both nations. This research note highlights current geographic, ideological, and demographic parliamentary inequalities in India and Sri Lanka. It finds major social groups especially women, those under age 40, the less educated, Indian Muslims, and those employed in the agricultural sector to be significantly under-represented. On the other hand, it finds provisional support for the hypothesis that Sri Lanka's proportional representation (PR) electoral system better facilitates equal representation than India's single member district (SMD) system. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Keywords

India, inequality, parliament, representation, Sri Lanka

Discipline

Asian Studies | Political Science | Politics and Social Change

Research Areas

Political Science

Publication

Contemporary South Asia

Volume

20

Issue

3

First Page

401

Last Page

406

ISSN

0958-4935

Identifier

10.1080/09584935.2011.599832

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2011.599832

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS