The Backstage of Democracy: India's Election Campaigns and the People Who Manage Them

Описание: This talk explores how this hidden world of professionalised campaigning is transforming power structures, expertise, and public participation in democracy.

Over the last decade, election campaigns in India have undergone a dramatic shift. Political parties increasingly rely on political consultants, spin-doctors, pollsters, and data-driven insights to mobilize voters. What is driving these changes? Drawing upon a recently published monograph, this talk explores the hidden arena of planning and strategizing that takes place between politicians and a new cabal of political professionals as they organize election campaigns in India. It argues that the change in electioneering is not reducible to a story of technological innovations alone. Rather, it is indicative of a new landscape where ideas of political expertise, the distribution of power within parties, and citizens' attitudes towards political participation have undergone a profound change.

Speaker: Amogh Dhar Sharma is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford.