Current Research Projects
My main research interests include political parties, political behavior, and party-voter linkages, with a regional focus on South Asia. My current and future research agenda is centered on how party strategy, campaigns, and political participation in developing democracies are shaped by significant transformations associated with development—especially, shifts in media and communication technology, urbanization, and environmental degradation.
Dissertation and Book Project
Party Campaigns in the Digital Age: Theory and Evidence from India
My book project, based on my doctoral dissertation, investigates how Internet-based communication technologies—including social media—affect the behavior of political parties and voters in India. I develop a theory to understand the ways in which these technologies shape party campaigns, party organization, and patterns of political participation. To evaluate the theory’s predictions, I employ a multi-method research design that brings together evidence from several months of intensive qualitative fieldwork conducted during multiple election campaigns and at party offices in North India, three original face-to-face quantitative surveys, and analysis of political parties’ social media content. The book will advance our understanding of how digital technologies are reconfiguring democratic practices in India.
Below are details of three standalone papers from my dissertation research.
Crowds as Content: Party Campaign Strategy in the Digital Age
(Working Paper, available upon request)
Abstract: Given the digital revolution, one might expect in-person mass campaigning to be replaced by more efficient online outreach; yet, mass rallies remain central to party strategy in developing democracies. What explains this persistence? Based on intensive fieldwork in the world's most populous democracy, India, I develop a theory of content-complementarity: a mutually reinforcing relationship between physical and digital modes of campaigning. In the social media era, in-person mass rallies remain the preeminent indicator of a party’s vitality and popularity, and parties can amplify rally content online for a wider impact. The anticipated effects of this content, in turn, shape how parties conduct rallies. Thus, in-person and online modes feed off each other. Empirically, I test key implications of my theory with observational data from party social media accounts, a novel survey of approximately 400 party workers, and original survey experiments with approximately 4,000 voters. I show the centrality of rallies to the digital campaigns of major parties in North India. I demonstrate that online content about the size and composition of rally crowds shapes party workers' campaign efforts, voter perceptions, and voter mobilization. In the digital age, parties transcend the limits of time and place through online rally content, and exposure to this content influences both party workers and voters.
Coethnic Campaigners: Party Strategy for Voter Mobilization in Multi-Ethnic Contexts
(Working Paper, available upon request)
Abstract: How do political parties mobilize voters in multi-ethnic contexts? How do parties strategize the placement of their high-cost mass rallies in these contexts during election campaigns? Existing theories suggest the level of electoral competition is the only determinant of where a party focuses its rally efforts, such that a party concentrates its rallies in either its swing or core districts. In contrast to these theories, I develop a theory which emphasizes that parties organize rallies where there is an ethnic identity match between high-level campaigners and voters, with the goal of maximizing crowd size, what I have termed the crowd-metric, in multi-ethnic contexts. Voters prefer to participate in rallies of coethnic campaigners and in today's digital age, voters also prefer to watch campaign videos that feature such campaigners. I develop my theory using an inductive theory-building approach that draws on qualitative data from rallies of "star campaigners" of India’s competitive parties. I test this theory with data from vignette survey experiments with approximately 400 party workers, and from conjoint survey experiments with approximately 4,000 voters conducted in Uttar Pradesh (UP), India's most populous state. I find additional support for my theory from a novel dataset on "star campaigners'' and their rallies during the 2022 state election campaigns in UP. I discuss the implications of my findings for representation and polarization in multi-ethnic settings.
Continuous Messaging & Constant Mobilization: Party Organization in the Digital Age
(Working Paper, available upon request)
Abstract: How have India's political parties adopted Internet-based communication technologies? How is this adoption of new technologies shaping party organization and party-voter linkages? Drawing on data from interviews with party functionaries, content analysis of speeches of party leaders and party documents, as well as a novel survey of approximately 400 party workers in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh (UP), I argue that in today's digital age, parties engage in continuous messaging to keep their functionaries and voters in a state of constant mobilization. Three factors have enabled this in the Indian context. The first factor involves dedicated IT and Social Media units that are formalized organizational verticals operating across party levels. I describe the internal party workforce of these units, and how they are distinct from a party's other organizational units. The second factor involves party behavior that emulates their organizations and voter outreach efforts online. Parties do this repeatedly on Internet-based platforms, not only during election campaigns, but months after, as well. The third factor involves content from in-person party events that is used for within-party engagement on social media. I explore how social media increases the importance of offline party events, and how online content associated with these events serves organizational purposes. Through such content, lower-level party workers and functionaries signal their loyalty and ability, and higher-level party functionaries project themselves as role models.
Articles based on my dissertation research
Social Media and Party Organization in India. Indian Politics & Policy. Vol. 5, No. 1, Summer 2025.
How Technology Is (and Isn’t) Transforming Election Campaigns in India. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - India Elects 2024. March 7, 2024.
Lok Sabha elections 2024: Can Tech Reshape the Poll Campaign?. Hindustan Times. March 11, 2024.
Other Academic Projects
Majoritarian Responses to Minority Mobilization: Evidence from Citizenship Protests in Delhi (with Anirvan Chowdhury, Leja Joe Mathew, and Shamindra Nath Roy)
(Working Paper, available upon request)
Abstract: In December 2019, the Indian government, led by the Hindu-majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), proposed a law to fast-track Indian citizenship for illegal non- Muslim migrants from Muslim-dominated neighboring countries. For the first time in India’s history, religion would determine eligibility for citizenship. This controversial Citizenship Amendment Act sparked protests across the country, many of which were led by Muslim women. How did a majoritarian political party respond to these protests? And what were their effects on the political behavior of both minority and majority groups? We answer these questions by assembling a granular dataset on protest locations, polling-station level electoral outcomes, neighborhood-level characteristics and party campaigns. Using the difference-in-differences method, we estimate the effects of protests on turnout and vote choice for the BJP in downstream elections held in Delhi, the epicenter of these protests. Further, we also demonstrate how the protests influenced the BJP’s electoral campaign strategy, including placement and rhetoric. This study contributes to scholarly work on how multiply marginalized groups can utilize the tools of contentious politics to articulate identity-based concerns, mobilize support across heterogeneous identity groups and affect majority attitudes and behavior.
Urban Politics in India (with Adam Auerbach and Bhanu Joshi)
A book chapter for the Cambridge Companion to Indian Politics and Society, edited by Manali Desai & Indrajit Roy.
Abstract: Within the next three decades, more than half of India’s population will live in cities and towns. In absolute terms, this represents an additional 315 million urban dwellers between now and 2050, on top of what is currently an urban population of 500 million people (UN 2015). Our chapter centers on the politics of India’s rapidly expanding urban spaces. We first motivate the chapter by (a) tracing India’s demographic shift to cities and towns and (b) describing the shape of municipal governance following decentralization reforms in the early 1990s. Next, drawing on several multi-disciplinary literatures, we discuss urban politics in India along three fronts. First, we review wide-ranging scholarship on inequalities in access to housing and public services, and the fractured nature of citizenship that is both a cause and consequence of those inequalities. Second, we discuss the politics of rural-urban migration and its influence on both small and large urban centers, as well as ethnic diversity and segregation in India’s cities. Third, we examine the emerging literature on electoral politics and the nature of party-voter linkages in urban India. To conclude, we highlight several areas of research that should command greater scholarly attention as India’s population marches toward being mostly urban.
Presidents, Parties, and the People in Direct Democracy (with Susan Stokes, Eli Rau, and Radha Sarkar)
A book-length project based at University of Chicago's Center on Democracy.
Abstract: In theory, referendums and other mechanisms of direct democracy help restore a more immediate and participatory dynamic to representative systems, without which political parties, governments, and policy making can appear distant from the common citizen. But in recent years, a chorus of voices has grown louder questioning the legitimacy and effectiveness of these mechanisms. The Brexit vote and ensuing political paralysis in the UK, and the failure of Colombians to approve a long-awaited peace deal, are two events that, in the eyes of many, marred the image of referendums. Critics argue that the results of referendums tend to be volatile and often do not reflect public opinion on the issue at hand. This book project addresses the value of referendums for democracies. We begin by testing a series of specific propositions about how referendums function, from a positivist perspective. Who participates in referendums and why? When do politicians choose to call referendums instead of pursuing other means of institutional or policy change? Can citizens’ initiatives serve as a check on legislative gerrymandering? The answers to these questions inform a broader normative question: do mechanisms of direct democracy outperform representative elections in aggregating societal preferences? And if so, under what conditions? As part of this project, we are created a global dataset of referendums held in democracies since 1960, including novel measures of key variables such as issue salience and party strategies. This work is part of a broader initiative to create publicly accessible tools for studying and tracking democratic functioning and erosion throughout the world. This research is funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF).
Dissertation and Book Project
Party Campaigns in the Digital Age: Theory and Evidence from India
My book project, based on my doctoral dissertation, investigates how Internet-based communication technologies—including social media—affect the behavior of political parties and voters in India. I develop a theory to understand the ways in which these technologies shape party campaigns, party organization, and patterns of political participation. To evaluate the theory’s predictions, I employ a multi-method research design that brings together evidence from several months of intensive qualitative fieldwork conducted during multiple election campaigns and at party offices in North India, three original face-to-face quantitative surveys, and analysis of political parties’ social media content. The book will advance our understanding of how digital technologies are reconfiguring democratic practices in India.
Below are details of three standalone papers from my dissertation research.
Crowds as Content: Party Campaign Strategy in the Digital Age
(Working Paper, available upon request)
Abstract: Given the digital revolution, one might expect in-person mass campaigning to be replaced by more efficient online outreach; yet, mass rallies remain central to party strategy in developing democracies. What explains this persistence? Based on intensive fieldwork in the world's most populous democracy, India, I develop a theory of content-complementarity: a mutually reinforcing relationship between physical and digital modes of campaigning. In the social media era, in-person mass rallies remain the preeminent indicator of a party’s vitality and popularity, and parties can amplify rally content online for a wider impact. The anticipated effects of this content, in turn, shape how parties conduct rallies. Thus, in-person and online modes feed off each other. Empirically, I test key implications of my theory with observational data from party social media accounts, a novel survey of approximately 400 party workers, and original survey experiments with approximately 4,000 voters. I show the centrality of rallies to the digital campaigns of major parties in North India. I demonstrate that online content about the size and composition of rally crowds shapes party workers' campaign efforts, voter perceptions, and voter mobilization. In the digital age, parties transcend the limits of time and place through online rally content, and exposure to this content influences both party workers and voters.
Coethnic Campaigners: Party Strategy for Voter Mobilization in Multi-Ethnic Contexts
(Working Paper, available upon request)
Abstract: How do political parties mobilize voters in multi-ethnic contexts? How do parties strategize the placement of their high-cost mass rallies in these contexts during election campaigns? Existing theories suggest the level of electoral competition is the only determinant of where a party focuses its rally efforts, such that a party concentrates its rallies in either its swing or core districts. In contrast to these theories, I develop a theory which emphasizes that parties organize rallies where there is an ethnic identity match between high-level campaigners and voters, with the goal of maximizing crowd size, what I have termed the crowd-metric, in multi-ethnic contexts. Voters prefer to participate in rallies of coethnic campaigners and in today's digital age, voters also prefer to watch campaign videos that feature such campaigners. I develop my theory using an inductive theory-building approach that draws on qualitative data from rallies of "star campaigners" of India’s competitive parties. I test this theory with data from vignette survey experiments with approximately 400 party workers, and from conjoint survey experiments with approximately 4,000 voters conducted in Uttar Pradesh (UP), India's most populous state. I find additional support for my theory from a novel dataset on "star campaigners'' and their rallies during the 2022 state election campaigns in UP. I discuss the implications of my findings for representation and polarization in multi-ethnic settings.
Continuous Messaging & Constant Mobilization: Party Organization in the Digital Age
(Working Paper, available upon request)
Abstract: How have India's political parties adopted Internet-based communication technologies? How is this adoption of new technologies shaping party organization and party-voter linkages? Drawing on data from interviews with party functionaries, content analysis of speeches of party leaders and party documents, as well as a novel survey of approximately 400 party workers in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh (UP), I argue that in today's digital age, parties engage in continuous messaging to keep their functionaries and voters in a state of constant mobilization. Three factors have enabled this in the Indian context. The first factor involves dedicated IT and Social Media units that are formalized organizational verticals operating across party levels. I describe the internal party workforce of these units, and how they are distinct from a party's other organizational units. The second factor involves party behavior that emulates their organizations and voter outreach efforts online. Parties do this repeatedly on Internet-based platforms, not only during election campaigns, but months after, as well. The third factor involves content from in-person party events that is used for within-party engagement on social media. I explore how social media increases the importance of offline party events, and how online content associated with these events serves organizational purposes. Through such content, lower-level party workers and functionaries signal their loyalty and ability, and higher-level party functionaries project themselves as role models.
Articles based on my dissertation research
Social Media and Party Organization in India. Indian Politics & Policy. Vol. 5, No. 1, Summer 2025.
How Technology Is (and Isn’t) Transforming Election Campaigns in India. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - India Elects 2024. March 7, 2024.
Lok Sabha elections 2024: Can Tech Reshape the Poll Campaign?. Hindustan Times. March 11, 2024.
Other Academic Projects
Majoritarian Responses to Minority Mobilization: Evidence from Citizenship Protests in Delhi (with Anirvan Chowdhury, Leja Joe Mathew, and Shamindra Nath Roy)
(Working Paper, available upon request)
Abstract: In December 2019, the Indian government, led by the Hindu-majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), proposed a law to fast-track Indian citizenship for illegal non- Muslim migrants from Muslim-dominated neighboring countries. For the first time in India’s history, religion would determine eligibility for citizenship. This controversial Citizenship Amendment Act sparked protests across the country, many of which were led by Muslim women. How did a majoritarian political party respond to these protests? And what were their effects on the political behavior of both minority and majority groups? We answer these questions by assembling a granular dataset on protest locations, polling-station level electoral outcomes, neighborhood-level characteristics and party campaigns. Using the difference-in-differences method, we estimate the effects of protests on turnout and vote choice for the BJP in downstream elections held in Delhi, the epicenter of these protests. Further, we also demonstrate how the protests influenced the BJP’s electoral campaign strategy, including placement and rhetoric. This study contributes to scholarly work on how multiply marginalized groups can utilize the tools of contentious politics to articulate identity-based concerns, mobilize support across heterogeneous identity groups and affect majority attitudes and behavior.
Urban Politics in India (with Adam Auerbach and Bhanu Joshi)
A book chapter for the Cambridge Companion to Indian Politics and Society, edited by Manali Desai & Indrajit Roy.
Abstract: Within the next three decades, more than half of India’s population will live in cities and towns. In absolute terms, this represents an additional 315 million urban dwellers between now and 2050, on top of what is currently an urban population of 500 million people (UN 2015). Our chapter centers on the politics of India’s rapidly expanding urban spaces. We first motivate the chapter by (a) tracing India’s demographic shift to cities and towns and (b) describing the shape of municipal governance following decentralization reforms in the early 1990s. Next, drawing on several multi-disciplinary literatures, we discuss urban politics in India along three fronts. First, we review wide-ranging scholarship on inequalities in access to housing and public services, and the fractured nature of citizenship that is both a cause and consequence of those inequalities. Second, we discuss the politics of rural-urban migration and its influence on both small and large urban centers, as well as ethnic diversity and segregation in India’s cities. Third, we examine the emerging literature on electoral politics and the nature of party-voter linkages in urban India. To conclude, we highlight several areas of research that should command greater scholarly attention as India’s population marches toward being mostly urban.
Presidents, Parties, and the People in Direct Democracy (with Susan Stokes, Eli Rau, and Radha Sarkar)
A book-length project based at University of Chicago's Center on Democracy.
Abstract: In theory, referendums and other mechanisms of direct democracy help restore a more immediate and participatory dynamic to representative systems, without which political parties, governments, and policy making can appear distant from the common citizen. But in recent years, a chorus of voices has grown louder questioning the legitimacy and effectiveness of these mechanisms. The Brexit vote and ensuing political paralysis in the UK, and the failure of Colombians to approve a long-awaited peace deal, are two events that, in the eyes of many, marred the image of referendums. Critics argue that the results of referendums tend to be volatile and often do not reflect public opinion on the issue at hand. This book project addresses the value of referendums for democracies. We begin by testing a series of specific propositions about how referendums function, from a positivist perspective. Who participates in referendums and why? When do politicians choose to call referendums instead of pursuing other means of institutional or policy change? Can citizens’ initiatives serve as a check on legislative gerrymandering? The answers to these questions inform a broader normative question: do mechanisms of direct democracy outperform representative elections in aggregating societal preferences? And if so, under what conditions? As part of this project, we are created a global dataset of referendums held in democracies since 1960, including novel measures of key variables such as issue salience and party strategies. This work is part of a broader initiative to create publicly accessible tools for studying and tracking democratic functioning and erosion throughout the world. This research is funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF).