Democracy, Governance and Civil Society in South Asia (The Distinguishedl Lecture)

In: The Pakistan development review: PDR, Band 33, Heft 4I, S. 593-624

Abstract

Six years ago, at the start of 1988, the prospect for
democracy in South Asia did not appear very promising. The military
rulers both in Pakistan and Bangladesh had managed to cloak their
regimes in civilian attire and appeared well entrenched even if their
quest for legitimacy had evaded them. In Nepal and Bhutan the hereditary
monarchs showed no signs of conceding to the demands for popular
participation despite the simmering political discontent in both
countries. The democratic traditions of Sri Lanka had proved
sufficiently resilient for the formal representative institutions to
endure but the continued civil strife and violence had virtually reduced
effective popular participation into a farce. Likewise in India, whilst
the ghost of Indira Gandhi's authoritarian rule during the emergency in
1975-77 had been exorcised by subsequent renewals of popular mandate,
the democratic institutions and popular accountability had probably
suffered irreversible damages and it was not uncommon amongst political
analysts to speak of the 'ungovernability' of the country.