Voting and Development : A new strategy

Dr L Krishnamangol Singh
the breakdown of the primitive society in different parts of the world the hijacked democracy (in the early history of kingdom) which had got ultra vires and which had been rejected by the authorities existed or prevalent in those days, lack of understanding of the proprietary rights of the kings and the power he could exercise in an independent kingdom to march towards democracy, and the value of the protection of life of the people under the kingdom against the adverse conditions from within and the neighbouring countries, danger of getting new ‘social status’ (ie unreasonable and conflicting status) in the name of constitution and the myriad of unexplained and unexpected social consequences if the tribal status is given to a new class eg Meitei in our case).
Lack of understanding of the new civil codes to be followed by the new tribals, large-scale immigration from lack of understanding of the politics of delimitation that seek to keep a balance of power among all communities, which is essential for peace and harmony, elimination of the concept of plebeian (lower class) and pediatrician classes and how the tribal organisations declined or decayed in the most European countries beginning from about the 5th century to about the 15 th century, uniformity in the common property resources (CPRs) in land, which the new tribal class may not be able to sacrifice, distribution of land or land ownership (to be fixed by the legal experts) excluding the common property resources which cannot be distributed from the environmental and ecological point of view, the need for law and order in the country/State, tight policy measures and actions for National and State security, which are already enshrined in the Constitution of the country, promotion of public health programs, education for all ( i.e. at different levels) accelerating maximum full employment and employment generation for all the labour force etc.
These are a few illustrative points and more relevant factors or frontiers of development may be identified. Thus, the political party or the candidate needs to address these critical issues relevant to any society or country for enhancing the economics vote from the voters. And, these issues and policies should be properly documented for public knowledge and the information and views of various development issues need to be disseminated to create awareness of the publics/voters. Thus, the decisions taken by the voters will enhance the eco- nomic vote which has a fair chance of success in the election.
In fact, it is observed that the political parties and the candidates are aware of the significance of economic vote in the recently concluded election. But, the economic voting for the voter’s preference function is mutually exclusive as one will be selected as a successful candidate only of a given set of candidates. Thus, in spite of having different roles of the candidates, economic vote or development vote plays a crucial role in making the candidate a popularly elected person in the election to become a member of Parliament or a member of any political institution.
Having seen the critical issues of economic vote and the voting behaviour of the voters, it would be interesting to set out a few points on ‘economic voting’.
In fact, economic vote needs measurement of data for the voters, which are difficult to be obtained. As already noted, economic vote is the decision for the vote and there may be contextual variation in the economic vote (i.e. the number of variations in the economic vote) . As against this (the expectation of economic vote) the economic voting will reveal the actual number of votes obtained by the candidates. In fact, economic vote vote is simply decision of the voters for the candidate while economic voting shows the actual voting outcome result.
Thus, there are many reasons that the rational ‘expectation’ (an economics term that reveals the actual outcome than expected) of the candidate or the party to which he or she belongs widely or marginally differ among or between candidates. Thus, the theory of economic voting seeks to test the hypotheses of the theory of economic vote.
We may now briefly state the meaning of economic voting. It may be noted that voting is an individual discrete (increasing or real choice (Dutch and Stevenson, The Economic vote,p. 40). Thus, according to Duch and Steveson, any definition of economic viting at the individual level must posit (put forwards as a fact or as a justification of the view) some relationship between a person’s perception of the economy and probability of casting a vote for each of the available parties or candidates in on election (i.e. determination of his support or decision) – (Ibid,p.40). Thus, the economic voting implies/defines the task of relationship between the actual voter’s choice and the economy (now measured in terms of overall development “including law and order).
In fact, economic voting relates to economic perceptions (view) and performance of the economy. Thus, economic voting may be changed in the decision of the voter according to the change in economic perceptions and performances. And if all the positions of the candidates are zero, there is no economic voting. And economic voting is also different in different countries according to the different conditions of the countries. Thus theoretically. It is essential to promote welfare and development of the people in order to secure the largest number of economic voting among all the political parties (i.e. among all the candidates of the political parties.
To conclude everybody knows that election cannot be compared with fashion in a democracy. There is the need for serious work of the candidate and political party for winning the election. And election also need not lead to unnecessary fragmentation of the Nation, States and the societies. What is more important is to check or guard against the external aggression from neighbouring country or other foreign countries. Today, in the context of Manipur, the Central and State Governments have a crutial role to flush out or crowd out the Kuki terrorists coming into Manipur from Myanmar.
At the political level, it is also necessary to take policy measures for making review of bilateral agreements reached between Myanmar and Government of India since the Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of the country since 2014.
And, in the event of failure to bring peace and normalcy, and public order in Manipur at the earliest, it is inevitable on the part of the Government of India and Government of Manipur to launch heavy attack on the Kuki terrorists, who are attacking and killing the Meiteis (ie the Meitei is officially a recognised early term )by deploying maximum army and armed forces wherever the Kuki terrorists exist in Manipur till the normalcy restores in the state as India had the determination to counter China in 1962 war and Pakistan in 1965 war.
In fact, it is not the time to follow the principle of "the most undeveloped territory is one that lies under the hats and caps that men wear ". (Parliamentarian Minoo Mosani quoted in Mainstream New Delhi, January 6, 1910:34) This suggests that there is now the need for a new paradigm shift in the policy of the Government of India and Government of Manipur to retaliate and annihilate the Kuki terrorists and their related foreign elements in order to save national security of India and security of Manipur and protect the sovereignty of the country and the integrity of Manipur, and restore peace and normalcy in the state without further delay.
The writer is an eminent Economist