Summary

South Asia’s five largest countries—Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka—have had very different experiences with democracy. In spite of these differences, their party systems exhibit several common features. First, two leading parties have tended to dominate politics over long periods of time in most South Asian countries. Second, these two parties typically anchor fragmented bipolar systems in which many very small parties combine to win substantial vote shares. Third, parties are seldom tied to voters through strong programmatic linkages. Fourth, parties tend to be more starkly differentiated from one another on the basis of ethnicity, though the type of ethnic identity that structures party systems varies across South Asia. Fifth, political dynasties dominate many of the region’s main parties. Of the main South Asian countries, India’s party system has received the most attention, with many arguing that its party system fundamentally changed with the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014. However, in terms of many key indicators (competitiveness, number and size of major parties, importance of regional parties, party system nationalization), the 2014 national election largely resembled prior elections. The 2019 election represented a much starker departure from prior patterns. But, it is arguably still too soon to know whether India has fully transitioned to a durable new party system and what the characteristics of a new party system might be.