Bridging gaps by building walls: Improving social accountability of political parties

Abstract

Regulations upon political parties is a discussion brewing from the popularisation of representative democracies, stemming from the core tenets of transparency and accountability. Scholars from the Global North and South alike have argued that regulations enhance the democratic process. Yet, the manifestation of years of expert analysis is still lagging behind. This is explicitly true in India, following decades of legislative and judicial efforts to ensure party regulations, foiled by an extensive lack of robust policies and independent institutions. Through this paper, we make the case for expanding the political regulatory regime in India with the argument that political parties play a role similar to corporations in the economic sphere and thus, require a similar degree of regulation. Furthermore, we explore the international precedents set by states with expansive regulatory frameworks and years of institutional capacity building. For this, we will focus on Italian and German regulations as a core case study. Lastly, by refining these resolutions into actionable recommendations fitting within the Indian context, we present our core recommendations on the core question of improving social accountability of political parties.