Degree

BS (Social Sciences & Liberal Arts)

Faculty / School

School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS)

Department

Department of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts

Date of Award

Spring 2022

Date of Submission

2022-07-25

Advisor

Dr. Laila Sohail Farooq, Assistant Professor & Director CBER, Department of Social Sciences

Committee

Dr. Laila Farooq, Assistant Professor & Political Science Director, Center for Business and Economic Research - Department of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts

Project Type

SSLA Culminating Experience

Access Type

Restricted Access

Abstract

Pakistan People’s Party has been able to retain its government in the province of Sindh through elections since 2008. To understand how the party has been able to do so, voter behaviour of the people of Sindh has been investigated. The research question which guided this research is “what factors influence the people of Sindh voter behaviour in favour of PPP in provincial elections?” Four factors were narrowed down for this study i.e.(i) identity politics, (ii) dynastic politics, (iii) biraderism, and (iv) economic incentives. The hypothesis for the study was that the people of Sindh are more likely to vote in favour of PPP in provincial elections due to biraderism and identity politics rather than dynastic politics and economic incentives. Primary quantitative methods were used where closed-ended surveys were conducted on 101 respondents ranging from the ages of twenty to sixty years. The sample was selected from two UCs of Karachi where PPP had won in the previous elections. These UCs were Rehri Goth PS 91 Malir and Ibrahim Haidari PS 90 Malir. A one-tail t-test and cross tabulation was conducted on the data to obtain results. Out of 101 respondents, 68% believed biraderism influenced voter behaviour, 55% expressed economic incentives, 42% revealed dynastic politics, and 58% believed it is because of identity politics. This data, therefore, provides enough evidence to accept the hypothesis which was: the people of Sindh are more likely to vote in favour of PPP in provincial elections due to biraderism and identity politics rather than dynastic politics and economic incentives. Moreover, cross-tabulations were performed using the variables age, gender, employment status, and education to see the effect they had on the four main factors. After analysing the data, it has been concluded that these variables had a significant impact on the voter behaviour in a holistic view therefore they must be taken into account. The implications of these results show that democracy is weak in the Sindh province and voting is not an individualistic right rather it is a collective community act.

Pages

77

Notes

This research was funded by Centre for Business and Economic Research (CBER).

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