Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Yatish Arya
Author-Name-First: Yatish
Author-Name-Last: Arya
Author-Email: yatish.arya@ashoka.edu.in
Author-Workplace-Name: Ashoka University
Author-Name: Anisha  Garg
Author-Name-First: Anisha 
Author-Name-Last: Garg
Author-Email: anisha.garg@warwick.ac.uk
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Waarwick
Title: Civic Infrastructure and Political Mobilization: Evidence from Urban India
Abstract: Can civic infrastructure shape political competition? We study public parks in Delhi, combining electoral returns with novel data on the RSS, a Hindu nationalist organization closely associated with the BJP. Using predetermined recreational land allocations from the 1962 Master Plan as an instrument for park access, we find that a one-standard-deviation increase raises the BJP-led alliance’s (BJP+) vote share by 1.92 percentage points and increases RSS presence. Yet this advantage is not fixed: across four Delhi elections from 2008 to 2020, the relationship between park access and BJP+ vote share is positive in three but weakens sharply in 2013, when the park-related advantage shifts toward the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which emerged from an anti-corruption movement that mobilized through public spaces. The findings suggest that civic infrastructure lowers the spatial costs of political organization, benefiting actors able to mobilize through it.
length: 75
Creation-Date: 20260819
Revision-Date: 
Publication-Status: 
File-URL: https://dp.ashoka.edu.in/ash/wpaper/paper167_0.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Number: 167
Handle: RePEc:ash:wpaper:167