event

Financing India’s Elections

Wed. October 31st, 2018
Washington, DC

Online registration for this event is now closed. Onsite registration will be available. Watch livestream at 10:00 a.m.

As India gears up for next year’s general election, there is genuine uncertainty about the eventual outcome of the country’s gargantuan polls. Yet there is widespread consensus on one thing: the 2019 election will be one of the world’s most expensive on record. A new book, Costs of Democracy: Political Finance in India, provides one of the first in-depth investigations of money in Indian politics. Drawing from extensive fieldwork on political campaigns, pioneering surveys, and innovative data analysis, the contributors in this new volume uncover the opaque and enigmatic ways in which money flows through the political arteries of the world’s largest democracy. The book’s co-editors Milan Vaishnav and Devesh Kapur will be joined in conversation by Thomas Carothers and Stephen Spaulding. Annie Gowen will moderate.

Thomas Carothers

Thomas Carothers is senior vice president for studies and director of the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Devesh Kapur

Devesh Kapur is the Starr Foundation South Asia Studies professor and director of Asia Programs at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.

Stephen Spaulding

Stephen Spaulding is the chief of strategy and external affairs for Common Cause.

Milan Vaishnav

Milan Vaishnav is the director and a senior fellow in the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he leads Carnegie’s India Elects 2019 initiative.

Annie Gowen

Annie Gowen is a national correspondent and former India bureau chief for the Washington Post.

In the months ahead, Carnegie scholars will analyze various dimensions of India’s upcoming election battle—including coalition dynamics, the shifting demographic trends in the country’s electorate, and the impact of elections on India’s foreign policy. Keep up to date at CarnegieEndowment.org/IndiaElects2019.

DemocracyEconomyTradeSouth AsiaIndia
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
event speakers

Thomas Carothers

Harvey V. Fineberg Chair for Democracy Studies; Director, Democracy, Conflict and Governance Program

Thomas Carothers, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program, is a leading expert on comparative democratization and international support for democracy.

Milan Vaishnav

Director and Senior Fellow, South Asia Program

Milan Vaishnav is a senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program and the host of the Grand Tamasha podcast at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His primary research focus is the political economy of India, and he examines issues such as corruption and governance, state capacity, distributive politics, and electoral behavior. He also conducts research on the Indian diaspora.

Devesh Kapur

Starr Foundation Professor, Johns Hopkins (SAIS)

Devesh Kapur is the Starr Foundation Professor of South Asian studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He is the author of three books on migration, including The Other One Percent: Indians in America (with Sanjoy Chakravorty and Nirvikar Singh).

Stephen Spaulding

Annie Gowen