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One of the most troubling critiques of contemporary democracy is the inability of representative governments to regulate the deluge of money in politics. If it is impossible to conceive of democracies without elections, it is equally impractical to imagine elections without money. Costs of Democracy is an exhaustive, ground-breaking study of money in Indian politics that opens readers’ eyes to the opaque and enigmatic ways in which money flows through the political veins of the world’s largest democracy.

Through original, in-depth investigation-drawing from extensive fieldwork on political campaigns, pioneering surveys, and innovative data analysis-the contributors in this volume uncover the institutional and regulatory contexts governing the torrent of money in politics; the sources of political finance; the reasons for such large spending; and how money flows, influences, and interacts with different tiers of government. The book raises uncomfortable questions about whether the flood of money risks washing away electoral democracy itself.

Contents: Introduction/Devesh Kapur and Milan Vaishnav. 1. Political Finance in a Developing Democracy: The Case of India/Eswaran Sridharan and Milan Vaishnav. 2. Money in Elections: The Role of Personal Wealth in Election Outcomes/Neelanjan Sircar. 3. Builders, Politicians and Election Finance/Devesh Kapur and Milan Vaishnav. 4. Navigating Fiscal Constraints: Dalit Parties and Electoral Politics in Tamil Nadu/Michael M. Collins. 5. Money and Votes: Following Flows through Mumbai and Bihar/Lisa Bjorkman and Jeffrey Witsoe. 6. What Costs So Much in Indian Elections? Intuitions from Recent Electoral Campaigns in Mumbai/Simon Chauchard. 7. Whose Money, Whose Influence? Multilevel Politics and Campaign Finance in India/Jennifer Bussell. Conclusion: Implications for Research and Policy/Devesh Kapur, Eswaran Sridharan and Milan Vaishnav. Index.