Narendra Modi’s social media election campaign and India’s delegative democracy

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21642015
AutoresShakuntala Rao (SUNY Plattsburgh, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen23
Número3
Páginas223-241
Fecha de publicación2020-07-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Communication Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1071-4421 • E-ISSN: 1547-7487
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10714421.2020.1829306
OpenAlexW3091741604
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas23

This paper qualitatively analyzes tweets sent by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and responses to the tweets in the month leading up to his May 2019 electoral win. Several dominant rhetorical themes emerged from the analysis of the data, including Modi as omnipresent and Modi as an advocate for democracy who encourages voters to vote. The dominant theme that emerged from his supporter’s responses was Modi as a leader who supports Hindu nationalism or Hindutva. Both Modi and his supporters presented him as a strong leader who could stand up to Islamic terrorism and one who would invest in national security and India’s army. The author concludes that India’s democracy, under Modi’s leadership, is akin to what Argentinian political scientist Guillermo O’Donnell has termed delegative democracy. Delegative democracy is marked by extreme individualism of the leader, majoritarian politics, and minimal emphasis on democratic institutional building. In both Modi’s and his supporter’s Twitter rhetoric, there was no commitment to inclusive representation within or strengthening of democratic institutions, and while allowing for effective contestation in the form of elections, there was no evidence of respecting India’s traditional constitutional norms, such as secularism and respect for minority rights

Democracy · Hinduism · Hindutva · Media studies · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Secularism · Sociology · Supporter · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · History · Law · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Religious studies · Social Media and Politics