Democratic Deficits in South Asia: A Comparative Study of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
Abstract:
South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh earned their freedom from British colonial power in 1947. All these countries carry the legacy of British model of democracy. All these countries, by and large, now follow the Westminster type of parliamentary democracy, despite military interventions, of and on, in Pakistan and Bangladesh have diluted this system. Interestingly, these countries have just conducted their general elections. Political analysts observe there is a tendency to move the democratic model towards authoritarianism or autocracy. In India and Bangladesh, it is the political actors who are mainly to blame for this degeneration or deficit, and in Pakistan, it is the military establishment that is still prodding some of the political actors to keep the democratic model alive the way they want it. All said and done, there are serious deficits like confrontational political culture, gagging the opposition, tending to destroy the constitutional institutions, muting the voices of media and civil society, politicizing bureaucracy, overbearing role of military etc.
The paper attempts to find out the genesis for such deficits. In doing so, it will also dig into the political culture of these countries, the haughty role of the party in power, corruption of the politicians and political economy, degeneration of institutions, political divisions within a country etc.
