This collection consists of a survey we administered in 40 villages on either side of the Madhya Pradesh- Chhattisgarh state border. The surveys were completed during the election season of November-December 2013 during which new state legislative assemblies were elected simultaneously in both states. Respondents were asked about a variety of public services. As part of this grant we carried out two surveys. Part 1 provides details about the survey carried out in Tamil Nadu, which primarily focuses on candidate evaluations. Part 2 provides details about the survey carried out in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh which primarily focuses on public service evaluations (for Part 1, see Related Resources). The network intends to compare politics in Indian cities and villages by studying state and local elections, quantitatively as well as qualitatively. It will ask whether voters are moving from identity-related to issue-based motivations - in cities if not in villages - and hypotheses that the changing profile of elected representatives - including MLAs - reflects an ongoing social democratisation process in spite of the development of local dynasties and the resilience of patronage. The network will bring into conversation researchers in different social science disciplines, employing different methodologies to demonstrate the complementarity of survey-based and ethnographic approaches to studying elections.

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