Democratic Deficit and Charismatic Dominance in Tamil Nadu’s Political Landscape

Resumen

The political career of Tamil Nadu has long been characterised by a long period of dominating charisma, where the personal popularity of established leaders like M.G. Ramachandran, Karunanidhi, and Jayalalithaa produced a polarised political culture of personality-based power as opposed to the party-based institutionalised democratic politics. The death of these giants has created a significant leadership gap, which has caused sectarianism, a lack of transparency in decisions made and the undermining of party democracy within. Recent trends, such as the flourishing of Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) led by a movie star, Vijay, illuminate how cinema can still be considered a tool of political mobilisation, attractive to younger generations disappointed with older parties. Yet, on the one hand, such emerging organisations hold out promise of change; on the other hand, the risk is that they renew top-down elitist structures they critique, thereby contributing to the entrenchment of the democratic deficit. To overcome this limitation, the present study combines content analysis of party manifestos, media discourse, and leadership practices with empirical data from 650 respondents across Tamil Nadu, stratified by age from 18 to 67 years. Both survey and interview evidence point to the most urgent use of transparent methods of election of leaders, policy debate, and the involvement of members, on one hand, and proof of the strength of codification of rules, decentralisation, and transparency in leadership changes, on the other. The paper presents a model for the structural reform of Tamil Nadu's parties, based on democratisation through institutional arrangements such as in-house elections, youth representation, and participatory policy-making, while acknowledging the cultural significance of charisma as a mobilising force. Responding to the lesson of the past, through incorporating both real-time citizen perceptions and theoretical formulations, the research findings show how a middle path of political organisation, with charisma serving as an adjunct rather than a replacement to democratic processes, can restore strong political organisation focused on the future and that embodies a great deal of transparency. These outcomes not only resolve the imminent political crisis in Tamil Nadu's political system but also serve as a model for enhancing party democracy in other regions of India.