Role of Institutional Credibility in Preserving Democracy- Test Case of Election Commission of India

As an institution of oversight, the role played by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in shaping the Indian democracy fosters a lively debate. Institutions like the ECI play a significant role not merely as managers of election process but also as shapers of democratic process. For a voter, inking of one’s finger as a proof of participation is a symbol of respect and inclusion. Similarly, pressing a button to register one’s vote is a symbol of empowerment for an otherwise unheard, invisible, marginalised citizen. Architectural regulation in absence of legal instruments works on the principle of soft paternalism. Though it delivers on the idea of independence of the institution but may be deficient in terms of operational accountability. The need to strengthen the institution structurally hence, emerges. This panel seeks to answer the following set of quandaries, and more:
1. How does an institution acquire a halo of ‘neutrality’ and ‘efficiency’ and sustain it?
2. How does its legitimacy lend institutional credibility to other sister institutions (like the bureaucracy) when they operate under its stronghold?
3. Can this trading of credibility between institutions lead to a more meaningful exercise of franchise or is this co-dependence both self-limiting and situational?
4. Given the covert dissonance between reform and choice, to what extent does an institution demonstrate operational and structural accountability, both as a trustee and a levelling institution?
5. Does the charge of ‘political’ interference over a few blemish the performance of the many who toil over the process of guarding ‘democratic’ values?
Both institutional actors and non-institutional actors have played a role in the process of making ECI a more credible institution. For example, positive perception generated by a guarded media and propagation of the idea of the ECI as a ‘neutral referee’ by way of judicial pronouncements has lent the ECI more regulative authority than the mere managerial one it was assumed to be entrusted with (Bhat, 2021). Can such co-operative performance towards common goal of ‘free and fair’ exercise of citizen’s rights raise hope for a more concerted, coordinated and co-producing action by similarly juxtaposed institutions on other pertinent fronts as well? How?