Franceska Refsum Jensenius #1 Young CAS Workshop
Francesca Refsum Jensenius, professor at the University of Oslo and one of our Young CAS PIs, embarked on a significant endeavor this month as she conducted her inaugural workshop at CAS. Immersed in the intricacies of democracy in India, Francesca's project, "Democracy's Reach: Political Representation and Elections in India," addresses pressing challenges to democratic governance, aiming to illuminate critical issues and foster collaborative solutions.
This month, Francesca Refsum Jensenius, professor at the University of Oslo and one of our Young CAS PIs, embarked on a pivotal journey as she conducted her inaugural workshop at CAS. Immersed in the complexities of democracy in India, Francesca's project, Democracy's Reach: Political Representation and Elections in India, seeks to address pressing challenges to democratic governance.
The project is driven by the urgent need to address the challenges to democratic governance in India, a nation grappling with issues of electoral representation, accountability, and institutional weaknesses within its political framework. By convening leading scholars in Indian politics, Francesca aims to dissect three fundamental challenges: the disparity between voting intentions and election outcomes, the accountability crisis stemming from uneven public service delivery and electoral clientelism, and the institutional fragility of the party system.
Utilizing original datasets meticulously collected by her core team, Francesca's project endeavors to shed light on these critical challenges while fostering collaborative ideas and forging a new research agenda for studying democracy in India and beyond.
We eagerly anticipate tracking Francesca's project over the next two years, confident that her innovative work will yield invaluable insights into the dynamics of democracy in India and its implications for the developing world.