ABSTRACT This paper qualitatively analyzes tweets sent by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and responses to the tweets in the month leading up to his May 2019 electoral win. Several dominant rhetorical themes emerged from the analysis of the data, including Modi as omnipresent and Modi as an advocate for democracy who encourages voters to vote. The dominant theme that emerged from his supporter’s responses was Modi as a leader who supports Hindu nationalism or Hindutva. Both Modi and his supporters presented him as a strong leader who could stand up to Islamic terrorism and one who would invest in national security and India’s army. The author concludes that India’s democracy, under Modi’s leadership, is akin to what Argentinian political scientist Guillermo O’Donnell has termed delegative democracy. Delegative democracy is marked by extreme individualism of the leader, majoritarian politics, and minimal emphasis on democratic institutional building. In both Modi’s and his supporter’s Twitter rhetoric, there was no commitment to inclusive representation within or strengthening of democratic institutions, and while allowing for effective contestation in the form of elections, there was no evidence of respecting India’s traditional constitutional norms, such as secularism and respect for minority rights.

中文翻译：

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纳伦德拉·莫迪 (Narendra Modi) 的社交媒体竞选活动和印度的代议制民主

摘要本文定制分析印度总理纳伦德拉·莫迪（Narendra Modi）发出的推文，并在2019年5月举行的月份对推文的回应。数据分析中出现了几个主要的修辞主题，包括无处不在的莫迪和鼓励选民投票的民主倡导者。从他的支持者的回应中出现的主要主题是莫迪作为支持印度民族主义或印度教的领导人。莫迪和他的支持者都认为他是一位坚强的领导人，可以对抗伊斯兰恐怖主义，并且会投资于国家安全和印度军队。作者得出的结论是，在莫迪领导下的印度民主类似于阿根廷政治学家吉列尔莫·奥唐奈所说的委托民主。授权民主的特点是领导者的极端个人主义、多数政治，以及极少强调民主制度建设。在莫迪和他的支持者的推特言论中，都没有承诺在民主机构内建立包容性代表或加强民主机构，虽然允许以选举形式进行有效竞争，但没有证据表明尊重印度的传统宪法规范，例如世俗主义和尊重少数人的权利。