DECLARATION I, Zoramthanga, do hereby declare that I am the sole author of this dissertation entitled, “Voting Behaviour of Youth in Aizawl District: A Case Study of the Seventh Assembly Elections”, submitted to Mizoram University for the award of the degree of MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY. And, that neither part of this dissertation nor the whole of the dissertation has been submitted for the award of a degree to any other University or Institutions. Date: 14.07.2016 ZORAMTHANGA Aizawl, Mizoram. (PROF. J. DOUNGEL) (PROF. K.V. REDDY) HEAD OF DEPARTMENT SUPERVISOR i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The writing and completion of this Dissertation would not have been possible without the generous guidance and unconditional support of my supervisor Professor K.V. Reddy, Department of Political Science, Mizoram University. I am truly grateful and indebted to him for his expertise, invaluable insight and assistance as well as his patience and understanding. I expressed my sincere gratitude to Professor J. Doungel, Head of Department, Department of Political Science, Mizoram University and all the faculty members of the Department of Political Science, Mizoram University for granting me admission to the programmed. The excellent guidance and motivation throughout the course-work and after has been a source of strength and a guiding light. For his immense assistance in collecting datas and requisite information for the research, I am thankful to LalengkimaChhiahtlang, Mizoram. Without his persistent help, this dissertation would not have been possible. I convey my heartfelt acknowledgements and thanks to the respondents of the questionnaire, without which this dissertation would not have an essence. My deepest appreciation and gratitude to my mother Sapchhungi. Her sacrifices, encouragements and constant prayers were a source of strength and motivation for the completion of my study. Special thanks to my sisters Lalhmangaihi and Lalmalsawmi, and their families. Their constant help, encouragement and sacrifices during the course of this work cannot be expressed in words. My sincere thanks and appreciation to my friends, colleagues and all those persons who gave me encouragements and assistance in deeds andwords. Above all, my thanks and gratitude to my Creator, for giving me the strength and capability to complete this piece of work. Dated :14.07.2016 ZORAMTHANGA Place : Aizawl iii CONTENTS Page No. DECLARATION i CERTIFICATE ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii CONTENT iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 – 26 CHAPTER 2: ELECTION PROCESS IN MIZORAM 27 – 64 CHAPTER 3: VOTING BEHAVIOUR OF YOUTH 65 – 120 IN AIZAWL DISTRICT CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS OF VOTING BEHAVIOUR 121 – 141 ON ELECTORAL OUTCOME CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 142 – 157 BIBLIOGRAPHY 158 – 163 APPENDICE 164 – 171 iv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Voting is an essential process in a democratic set up. Among the various systems of governments in the world, democratic form of government, with all its shortcomings, whether direct or through elected representatives, is considered an ideal form of government. Even though no consensus existed on the definition of democracy, the characteristics of legal equality, freedom and rule of law are identified as the foundations of democracy. These characteristics of democracy are reflected in all eligible citizens being equal before the law and having equal access to legislative processes such as contesting in elections and occupying public offices, the right to form political associations and to exercise franchise. An important legislative process in a democratic government is election, whereby the population chooses an individual or a group of people to hold public offices. In today’s world, almost all the sovereign states have adopted the ideology of democracy directly and otherwise.In either way, the behavior of the voters in election is the most important thing in any democratic country. Theoretical Aspect of Voting Behavior The study of voting activity gained momentum in the late 1940s through the behavior school of thought also known as ‘Behaviouralism’. The study of political actors as well as the voters in democratic countries increased day by day and critics also developed the Post-Behavioral approach to create a more logical and deep inquiry into the world politics. The theoretical model of voting behavior was first developed by Lazarsfield, Berelson, Gaudetin(1944) in their work‘The People’s Choice’whose main work originated from the Colombia University, also known as the ‘Sociological Model’. This model or school of thought focuses its study mainly on the influences of social factors.1Another theory was developed by the School of Rochester. This school had its base on the work of Anthony Downs’ ‘An Economic Theory of Democracy’published in 1957. This theory draws attention to the economy of the state and it was known as the model of economic voting, sometime it was also referred as the rational choice theory.2 Another important approach was developed in 1960 by the School of Michigan that later came to be known as the psychological model of voting behavior. This approach draw its main source from the work of Angus Campbell, Philip Converse, Warren Miller and Donald Stokes that assume party identification is the main factor behind the behavior of the voters. Their work ‘The American Voter’ published in 1960 paved the way for the study of election process in America. From the above school of thought other theories were also developed to have a deep study of voting behavior, some of them are, the field theory, the cognitive theory, the psychodynamic theory, the humanistic Theory and the converging theories.3 Following are a few explanations of these theories. The field theory is an approach to find out the voter intentions in elections. It mainly relies on systematic research design and also employed a probability sampling method to draw the necessity sample which later became an interview through open-ended questions. This theory gives emphasis on the measurement of 1RuiAntunes. (2010). Theoretical models of voting behavior. Escola Superior de Educação - InstitutoPolitécnico de Coimbra. Pp 145-169. 2Ibid., p 145. 3 Ibid p 149 2 attitudes and perceptions, and it also believed that variables like age, sex, education and economic status of the candidate as important factors. And systematic field research is necessary under this theory to find out the determinants of voting behavior. The cognitive theory pays attention on the theory of causal attribution and a theory of balance. This theory seeks an account for the processes that are involved in perceiving other persons, their behavior and their personal characteristics. According to this theory the origin and the adjustment attributed to that origin forms a causal unit, in that the origin causes the change.4 The next step is to investigate in general the relations between attitudes and causal units. With an improvement in technology after the Second World War and the invention of a computer, the theory of cognitive orientation was applied to the computer world. It was both appealing and easy to conceive of humans as information processing devices, receiving input from their environment (perception), processing the input (thinking), and converting it into output (action/decision). A simple explanation of cognitive orientationcan be given like this, cognitive psychology refers to the study of knowledge and how people use it or to the study of mental processes of perception, memory, and information processing by which the individual acquires knowledge, solves problems, and plans for the future. With the application to social phenomena, social cognition is concerned with how people make sense of other people and themselves. 4M. Visser. (1998). Five Theories of Voting action: Strategy and structure of psychological explanation. Doesburg: Author. Pp 44-47. 3 Further, the psychodynamic theory holds that all human behavioral and mental activity was ultimately motivated by a few basic drives, divided into two categories: sexual (including self-preservation) and aggressive drives. Self- preservative need is directly tied up with the modes of economic production and organization that is the sole basis of society. This theory also emphasises on the historical sociological approach to inquiring into the social basis of political system or political rule. The humanistic theory is similar with psychodynamic theory but with a little difference in terms of different variables in human nature. The humanistic theory believed in human behavior that life strivings and needs can be best understood by employing the phenomenological method of understanding on the one hand, and by studying biographical materials (like diaries and letters) on the other. Human life is about pleasure-need (satisfaction in sex, love and Ego- recognition), self-limiting adaptation (fitting in, belonging, security), creative expansion (self-expression, creative accomplishments), and integration (maintenance of inner psychic order). These basic strivings are all present from the beginning of life, but each plays a prominent role in each phase. As an end goal, fulfilment represents the attainment of something the person believes in, which requires the balancing of expansion and adaption, satisfaction and internal order in the course of the person's life. When a person fails to pursue his end and goal of life, i.e. fails to realize his potential, this may lead to psychological problems of conflict, anxiety and guilt, the curing of which is the main area of humanistic psychotherapy. The