Political Advertising and Voting Behaviour in India: The Mediating Role of Voting Decision Involvement

Abstract

Political campaigning is one aspect of any election system and it includes the use of many forms of communication tools including political advertising. As compared to other campaigning tools a large share of campaign expenditure is allocated for the purpose of political advertising and that too across various political parties in India.
But, in India where elections are contested more on the basis of caste, creed, religion and regional issues, the attempt to make the people informed and knowledgeable, and to have their favourable action tendencies through the intense use of advertising is certainly a matter which makes us inquisitive about the role of political advertising in Indian context. This becomes more a reason of worry when the size of advertising expenditure is very large and even in some cases larger than the annual budget of some big FMCG companies.
The present paper is an attempt to explore the relevance of using political advertising in Indian context. The study investigates the perceptions about the role of political advertising in affecting voting behaviour in regard to information search and evaluation, attitude towards voting, and making of voting choice. It is further hypothesized that the perceptions about the role of political advertising are mediated by the level of one’s involvement with voting decision. The study finds very limited support to establish the relevance of using political advertising at the scale it is presently used by various political parties in India.