Popular Participation in Political Parties……..

It is often said that political parties are facing a crisis because they are very unpopular and the citizens are indifferent to political parties.The available evidence show the belief is only partly true for India.The evidence,based on a series of large surveys conducted over several decades,shows that:

1.Political parties do not enjoy much trust among people in south Asia.The proportion of those who say their trust in political parties is ‘not much’ or ‘not at all’ is more than who have ’some’ or ‘great trust’.

2.The same is true for most other democracies as well.Political parties are on of the least trusted institutions all over the world.

3.Yet the level of participation in the activities of political parties was fairly high.The proportion of those who said they were members of some political party was higher in In India than many other advanced countries like japan,Canada,Spain and south Korea.

4.Over the last three decades,the proportion of those who report members of political parties in India has gone steadily up.

5.The proportion of those who say they feel ‘close to a political party’ has also gone up in India in this period