Jos Bartman

Jos Bartman is a Ph.D. candidate at the political science department of the University of Amsterdam. In his dissertation, he looks at how and why the political elite of subnational undemocratic regimes use repression. For his research he conducted fieldwork in both Mexico (Veracruz) and India (Gujarat). He looks specifically at how political elite of subnational undemocratic regimes repress actors that have the ability to extend the scope of compromising information. Before starting his Ph.D. he did research on Maoist rebel recruitment, and spent six months in West Bengal and Odisha among Maoist cadres and sympathisers. Other research interests include the comparative politics of conflict and democratisation.

How democratic are the states of India?
India is often credited for its success as the world’s largest democracy – but does the degree of democracy vary across Indian states? This article develops an index to map the development of subnational democracy across states over time. Drawing on newly assembled data for 1985-2013, it demonstrates that threats to subnational democracy come from multiple directions, including the central government and non-State armed actors.
