Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics). This item is unavailable.Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)

Revealing why Hindu-Muslim riots in India break out when and where they do, Steven Wilkinson demonstrates why some state governments in India prevent Hindu-Muslim riots while others do not or even help to incite violence. Wilkinson asserts that riots are manipulated to help win elections, and that state governments decide whether to stop them--depending on electoral calculations concerning the loss or gain of votes. He tests this claim using a dataset on riots and their causes as well as case studies of several Indian states.

Steven I. Wilkinson is Nilekani Professor of India and South Asia and Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at Yale University. Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India was co-winner of the American Political Science Association's 2005 Woodrow Wilson Foundation prize. He is currently researching the links between colonial inheritances and post-independence levels of democracy, governance and conflict.