BMET 22A57 - Making Sense of Indian Elections

The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the art of electoral and political analysis through a data-driven or evidence-based approach. The course invites you to question dominant or common narratives on contemporary Indian politics by grounding arguments into empirical evidence. We will also think about how to engage data critically, how to contextualize and historicize data, how to visualize it, and learn the limitations of data-driven electoral analysis.

The course will consist of a mix of lecture and practical exercises based on original Indian electoral data. You will be working on an original dataset and produce your own analysis.

The assignments designed for this course are meant to encourage students to look at South Asia politics through academic literature and through data. You will be evaluated as follows:

• Oral exposé (once per term, individually or in pairs according to enrolment) 20%
• In-class exercises 30%
• Class participation 20%
• Final in-class exam 30%

The final exam will consist in an essay based on a choice of given topics. You will be evaluated on (1) your ability to structure your paper in a clear, logical and coherent manner, (2) Your ability to identify the key dimension and questions related to the topic (3) your ability to connect the case to the larger themes or questions addressed in the course.