Mobilizing the Marginalized: Ethnic Parties without Ethnic Movements [Paperback]

InMobilizing the Marginalized, Amit Ahuja shows how social movements by marginalized ethnic groups - those who are stigmatized by others and disproportionately poor - undermine bloc voting to generate competition for marginalized citizens' votes across political parties.India's over 200 millionDalits, once called untouchables, have been mobilized by social movements and political parties, but the outcomes of this mobilization are puzzling. Dalits' ethnic parties have performed poorly in elections in states where movements demanding social equality have been strong while they have succeeded in states where such movements have been entirely absent or weak. InMobilizing the Marginalized, Amit Ahuja demonstrates that the collective action of marginalized groups--those that are historically stigmatized and disproportionately poor  is distinct. Drawing on extensive original research conducted across four of India's largest states, he shows, for the marginalized, social mobilization undermines the bloc voting their ethnic parties' rely on for electoral triumph and increases multi-ethnic political parties' competition for marginalized votes. He presents evidence showing that a marginalized group gains more from participating in a social movement and dividing support among parties than from voting as a bloc for an ethnic party.List of Figures, Maps, and TablesPrefaceAcknowledgmentsList of Abbreviations1 Introduction2 Mobilization and the Marginalized3 Historical Dalit Social Mobilization4 The Effects of Historical Dalit Social Mobilization5 Dalit Party Performance and Bloc Voting6 Dalit Social Mobilization and Bloc Voting7 How Mobilization Type Shapes Dalit Welfare8 The Identity Trap9 Conclusion: Whither Dalit Politics?Appendix A Focus Groups and Follow-up InterviewsAppendix B Locality-based Campaign SurveyAppendix C An Observational Study Assessing Caste Boundaries in the IndianMarriage MarketGlossaryIndexAmit Ahujais Associatel��