

Rather than being uninformed, voters in India strategically elect politicians who are tied to criminal activity.

Demonetization alone is not enough to end dirty money in Indian politics. Modi must also close legal loopholes, tie tax breaks to political parties with transparency, and directly attack the underlying drivers of the black economy.

Some 75 percent of the money going to political parties is from undocumented sources. Modi’s crackdown on black money will therefore be hugely disruptive for the upcoming elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

Much of the India-U.S. relationship functions through their respective bureaucracies. But reassuring America’s friends abroad will be an uphill climb for Trump.

For the election in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party is relying on nationalism, Hindu majoritarianism, Modi’s popularity, failures within other parties, and strong headline economic numbers.

Indian voters do not elect criminals out of ignorance. Instead, candidates with serious criminal records are sometimes preferred because their criminality signals their credibility.

A new body of work shows the relationship between bureaucrats and politicians in India is riddled with perverse incentives and unintended consequences. But, it also points to possible actions for reform.

The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the essential bureaucratic organ of the Indian state, but it is badly out of sync with today’s demands.

The Indian government should reshape recruitment and promotion processes for the Indian Administrative Service, improve performance-based assessment of individual officers, and adopt safeguards that promote accountability while protecting bureaucrats from political meddling.

Survey opinion research is an incredibly valuable tool, but there are challenges to measuring beliefs, drawing inferences, and using limited open data.