Need for a Majority to Form the Government in India: Legal and Ethical Justifications

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the existing democratic system of forming the government in India, and to analyze the legal and ethical justifications for the system. For this, I went through some relevant important events of Indian politics.

Among the Legal Justifications, the first issue covered is Role of the President. I have analyzed what the Law says, and what actually happens. The second issue covered is Coalition Politics. I have tried to study the viability of coalition governments in the current unstable political scenario.

Among the Ethical Justifications, the first issue covered is Criminalization. I have studied the effectiveness of certain relevant provisions of the Representation of Peoples Act. The second issue covered is Communal Politics. I have tried to analyze how parties use this as an effective weapon of winning seats in elections. The third issue covered is Defection and Horse Trading. I have analyzed that how parties go to the extent of buying and selling of legislators, and the laws present to check this.

Finally, I concluded with suggesting a few changes in the existing legal and political system to check the practices that are unjustified both legally and ethically, but nevertheless they exist.

Keywords: democracy, India, politics, majority, elections

JEL Classification: K10