Revisiting a dominant party: Normative dynamics of the Indian National Congress
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| Author | Piyanat Soikham |
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2057891118805157 |
| Subject Matter | Research articles |
Research article
Revisiting a dominant party:
Normative dynamics of the
Indian National Congress
Piyanat Soikham
Faculty of Political Science, Ubon Ratchathani University, Thailand
Abstract
Previous scholarship has established that the Indian National Congress (INC) is widely regarded as
India’s dominant party due to its consecutive victories in winning the majority of the vote share in
elections, its ability to manage and embrace internal conflict through strong organizational
structures and the dominant capacity to set the public agenda and political order. To deepen
understanding of this party, this article adopts a norm-based framework to define norms, a social
understanding of social groups, which determines and shapes actions and behaviour. Building upon
this framework, despite the electoral setbacks and even decline in electoral fortunes of Congress
after Indira Gandhi since 1977, the INC has been able to maintain a significant presence in Indian
party politics due to certain key norms, allowing it to adapt to a changing context. This article
concludes that the INC’s set of norms on self-autonomy, social and national inclusivity, nationwide
organization, social justice and peaceful and democratic resolution has over time shaped the
Congress’s aspirations and achievements to become a dominant party. Regardless of the relative
decline of electoral performance, these norms continue to set the INC as India’s dominant party,
with a strong organizational structure and the ability to frame India’s political order.
Keywords
dominant party, India, Indian National Congress, norms, political party
Introduction
Previous scholarship has established that the Indian National Congress (INC) is widely regarded as
India’s dominant party due to its consecutive victories in winning the majority of the vote share in
elections, its ability to manage and embrace internal conflict through strong organizational
Corresponding author:
Piyanat Soikham, Faculty of Pol itical Science, Ubon Ratchatha ni University, 85 Sathollmark R d. Warinchamrap Ubon
Ratchathani, Thailand 34190.
Emails: soikhampiyanat@gmail.com, piyanat.s@ubu.ac.th
Asian Journal of Comparative Politics
2019, Vol. 4(1) 23–41
ªThe Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/2057891118805157
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structures and the dominant capa city to set the public agenda and po litical order. To deepen
understanding of this party, this article adopts a norm-based framework to define norms, a social
understanding of social groups, which determines and shapes actions and behaviour. Building upon
this framework, the article argues that, despite the electoral setbacks and even decline in electoral
fortunes of Congress after Indira Gandhi since1977, the INC has been able to maintain a significant
presence in Indian party politics dueto certain key norms, allowingit to adapt to a changing context.
This article is divided into five sections and employs documentary research to identify the
INC’s key norms. The first section sets out a theoretical framework to understand dominant party
theory and the role of norms in constructivist comparative politics. Following this, the subsequent
three sections adopt this framework to scrutinize a set of key norms and its relevance to the INC’s
electoral successes and failures (second section), the INC’s effective organizational structure (third
section) and its ability to shape India’s political order (fourth section). The final section sum-
marizes the norm dynamics that impact on the INC’s dominant party status.
Dominant party theory and constructivism in comparative politics
Political parties are one of the most important aspects in the study of political science, as noted by
Arian and Barnes (1974: 592): ‘The party is a major link between political elites and the mass and
an important instrument of governing in most political system’. Thus, political parties are a way of
gathering representation for interests and voices. They aim to gain votes and support to govern.
General scholarship has provided an understanding that there are different types of political party
system, depending to an extent on domestic conditions: one-, two- and multi-party systems. The
three types are generally divided on the basis of number of key parties and their roles in the system.
However, this article will focus on a dominant party in a political system.
Much research (Arian and Barnes, 1974; Duverger, 1959; Reddy, 2005; Southall, 2005) has
outlined the theories of a dominant party and its key characteristics. This scholarship has estab-
lished that a dominant party system revolves around the domination of a party in a given political
system. The dominant party holds three major elements: 1) successive victories in elections; 2)
effective internal management; and 3) the ability to set the agenda. To begin with the durable
electoral victories, the first prerequisite of a dominant party is seen in its capacity to win elections
and form a government within a competitive political system. Southall (2005: 63) proposed that the
dominant party ‘establish[es] electo ral dominance for an uninterrupted and prolon ged period,
enjoys dominance in the formation of government’. This allows a particular party to become a
dominant party with mass-based legitimacy (Reddy, 2005: 271).
Secondly, being a dominant party revolves around the capacity to solve internal conflict within
the organization by gathering different interests from vario us groups, intermingling them and
transforming into a policy agenda to win the popular vote (Arian and Barnes, 1974: 597; Reddy,
2005: 289). Reddy notes that the dominant party is ‘constituted by many factions and operates on
the idiom of consensus-seeking internal politics’ (Reddy, 2005: 271). Last but not the least, the
dominant party has an ability to set the agenda for public perception (Reddy, 2005: 271; Southall,
2005: 63). Arian and Barnes (1974: 595) affirm that ‘certainly, many dominant parties ...have
been closely identified with the creation of the constitutional and political order that they came to
dominate’. Interestingly, some studies (Arian and Barnes, 1974; Reddy, 2005) define democratic
practice and stability as the political order that a dominant party has over time maintained. On this
account, the dominant party refers to a party that has won consecutively in elections and is eligible
24 Asian Journal of Comparative Politics 4(1)
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