Search

With the Delhi Durbar at its weakest in decades and the national parties in a funk, India's ability to deal with externally induced challenges in the run-up to the elections and after is being undermined by an irresponsible domestic discourse.

Campaign trends in Delhi elections indicate that parties are playing around the issues having popular appeal rather than the hard core issues of governance, statehood or even air pollution. In varying degrees, populist ideas such as free houses, free water and free electricity remain the core poll promises for all political parties.

Charismatic, centralised leadership, like Mr Modi's today and Indira Gandhi's earlier, whilst have a huge advantage in national elections, cannot single-handedly carry a local election. Delhi is likely to make this point to leaders yet again.

Can things change even before 2020, if Arvind Kejriwal resigns, admitting he has lost the mandate to rule?

The process of subverting democracy and politicians began at the beginning of Pakistan.

Though foreign policy is going to be an important issue in the US Presidential elections next year, the Democrat candidates for the party's nomination have surprisingly devoted little time to this aspect so far. However, as the campaign progresses and the less serious candidates drop out of the race, the issue is likely to gain greater attention.

The relatively small tactical operation did not meet its military objective but generated spectacular political theatre. The release of the videos in the run up to the elections is further evidence of the true nature of the exercise.

Elections will not be won or lost because of events in Sri Lanka, but Sri Lanka could be lost because of our electoral politics. Our PM's absence in Colombo at this juncture is akin to a public snub to Sri Lanka and the vacuum that we create and show little intention or urgency to fill, can only be filled by one country - China.

The existing NOTA option is just symbolic because even if the majority of voters in a constituency detest the candidates, one of them will still be elected.

Hitting at the neutrality of armed forces will do more damage than good

Some conventional wisdom about how economic outcomes affect politics will be tested on May 23.

The promises made by key parties in the Delhi elections are in conformity with the national trend of offering populist schemes. One thought political parties of this 'enlightened' metropolis, that was turned to an epicentre of the nation-wide anti-corruption stir and gave rise to political newbie AAP, would beat this trend and offer something better.

On the eve of the February 18 elections, no two people in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi were agreed on the certainty of elections taking place. Elections cannot take place, it was argued then, because the establishment will not risk an open-ended process which might produce inconvenient results. In the Pakistani context, the establishment has always meant the Army, the bureaucracy, big landlords and the United States.

Welcome, American liberals. Welcome to the special torment of discovering that you do not know your country.

The President-elect Donald Trump has already confirmed that Lieutenant General Michael Flynn will serve as the next National Security Advisor

The EC is a child of political happenstance and jugaad, not thoughtful institutional strategy.

Recognising the critical nature of the situation in Egypt, and the role that a successful free and fair elections will have as a stabilizing factor in the establishment of a 'new' Egypt, Observer Research Foundation invited Justice Hatem Bagato,

At the heart of the debate on electoral reforms lies the vexed issue of campaign finance reform. There are four fundamental questions that need to be answered to understand this conundrum. A related but standalone issue is that of state funding of elections.

A political neophyte who has never held any elected office before, Emmanuel Macron at 39 years is the youngest President in French history.

While the idea that emotional appeal is central to political persuasion may serve common intuition, the dynamics underscoring how and why this is so, remain underexplored. This primer collates insights from neuroscience and political psychology to show why emotions are essential to vote choice. It explores the effects of emotional appeals on voter perceptions using examples from campaign advertisements in US elections. The analysis finds that pol

All these issues will be in play in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which explains whether this was a preview of the general elections.

As the US Presidential elections unfold, Republican candidates would be thoroughly tested on their merit of thinking creatively on issue-based solutions to global challenges and exploring facets of diplomacy and non-military aspects of foreign policies in contrast to the focus on military interventionism and a hawkish vision of American policies abroad.

The GDP growth does not mean much to the average voter. But prices do that matter as inflation cut into the budget for healthcare and education for children. Thus what will ultimately decide the outcome of the elections will be inflation and the government's inability to control it.

नेपाल के आम चुनाव में पड़ोसी मुल्‍क भारत और चीन की दिलचस्‍पी बनी हुई है. खासकर तब जब चीन भारत को चौतरफा घेरने के लिए चीन नेपाल की जमीन का बेजा इस्‍तेमाल करने में लगा हुआ है.

Did Russia's quick response of offering the new Greek prime minister with financial aid to sail through the financial crisis help him bargain the new time line for debt rescheduling? Yes or not, the victory of the 'Left' PM in the Greek general elections has given a geo-political twist to Eurozone's troubles.

If it is any yardstick for a vibrant democracy, India today has six former Prime Ministers around. Only two of them, namely, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and P V Narasimha Rao completed a full term, and thus became mascots of political stability in their time. Yet, subsequent elections proved that stability was not the only concern of the Indian voter. To him, political stability is a vehicle for his deliverance and in ways he understands.

The three debates between Clinton and Trump are over and countdown to the big day has started. It has become a much tighter race than it was a week ago

The elections in Nepal will complete the democratic transition. India must play an enabling role

The AAP’s historic victory in a state with no reliable voting base and a weak and invisible party organisation is a fairy tale story almost similar to what the newbie party achieved in the Delhi elections in 2015.

Before the elections in the beginning of this year, the authorities of the Iraqi Government had announced warrants for the arrest of 29 Iraqis and foreigners, who, according to them, are either former members of the Saddam Hussein Government or part of the Abu Mus¿ab al-Zarqawi terrorist network of the Al Qaeda.

The media has been working overtime to sow divisions in Sharif’s party and family.

Competitive welfarism is a consequence of India's failure to deliver inclusive growth. Can it be shaped so future growth is assured?

India will be in no hurry to do business with its new management. Onus of rapprochement lies with Pakistan.

There is no reason to believe that we will witness some change in Pakistan’s foreign policy.

How will India manage a Pakistan led by Imran Khan?

Elections across Europe will need to produce a new generation of leaders if its remapping is to be prevented.

With the elections underway in India, eyes are now on the outcome of the polls, likely to be known by May 16. Wider belief is that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) may win the keenly fought elections.

The political landscape of Europe is steadily changing, and the sheen of Right-wing populism seems here to stay.

While Indian-Americans are delighted, many of them nevertheless see candidates through the lens of their attitude towards India

State elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa, scheduled from January end to March 3, with results becoming public on March 6, are some kind of mini general elections.

Modi does it again.

India has embarked on a large-scale infrastructure development program, ranging from highways to airports, a critical government-led push to provide the economy a strong base to build upon.

With Trump elected as President of the US, the waning economic order — WTO — is even more under threat and now resembles like the League of Nations of pre-war era.

India, the world’s largest democracy, and the United States (US), the world’s oldest democracy, are heading to elections this year. The elections come when both democracies are increasing their cooperation in South Asia (SA) to maintain a ‘free and open’ Indo-Pacific and push back against an assertive and aggressive China.