Larger Electoral Districts Mean Less Cabinet Power in India's States

Malapportionment, an imbalance in electoral district sizes, unfairly disadvantages people in larger constituencies. This research explores how this affects cabinet representation at subnational levels across Indian states during 1977-2007.

Data & Methods:

New cross-sectional dataset on elections and cabinet formation in India’s states (1977–2007)

Regression discontinuity design

Key Findings:

• A one-standard-deviation increase in relative constituency size lowers the probability of a representative being included in the cabinet by 22%.

*Mechanism & Implications:

• Large parties focus on winning smaller constituencies due to malapportionment effects.
• This suggests similar dynamics may occur elsewhere in parliamentary systems where legislative outcomes impact executive branch representation.