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Institutionalization and Change in the Indian Lok Sabha

Sunil Ahuja

Affiliations:

Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Professor of Political Science, The University of Scranton, Scranton, USA

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This paper examines legislative development in the Indian Lok Sabha employing the concept of institutionalization, a widely noted model of legislative change. Developed and applied by Nelson Polsby to the U.S. House of Representatives in an article published in 1968, this model has been extended systematically to only a couple of other legislatures. In this paper, I extend the application to the Lok Sabha. The findings, as in other applications, show mixed results regarding the establishment of boundaries, the growth of internal complexity, as well as the development of universalistic rules. As a model of legislative change, institutionalization provides some very broad strokes, but not necessarily precise mechanisms that would similarly explain the evolution of all legislative bodies.

Keywords:
Parliament, Lok Sabha, Institutionalization

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