The Spectacle Of Democratic Life

The spectacle of democratic life dwells on the quality of politics, in the desire of people for a good life, supported by their political leaders with full accountability and obligations, unscathed by special interest groups of society bent on confiscating the public power of the welfare Nepali state to serve them. Regular decontamination of politics is, therefore, essential to orient it to public-spiritedness under the guidance of both public morality of leadership and the constitution of Nepal. It can inspire hope for people to lift to happiness, serenity and peace and sluice the evil deeds of powerful elites that break the hearts of the powerless and seize the smile from their face.  

The critical components of democratic life consist of political, economic, administrative, communication and civil society actors who shape its underlying rituals, regularities and processes and do not leave a vacuum of power to be filled by pre-political, anti-political and geopolitical elements against the rules of the game. In the arena of democratic life, public spheres act as a critical arena of issue awareness, societal problems are solved and governing goals of the state are articulated. Another area of keeping democratic life breathing is proper means of political socialisation of diverse Nepali people into national citizens able to discharge their rights and duties. 

Practical policies

This is the way of learning the scales of values, art of democracy and acquiring skills and knowledge for role occupation in different institutional positions needed to address the complex needs and tasks of society and polity for their smooth functions. Socialisation politicises them and enables them to assume the integrity of political life. Political ideologies which are the instruments of socialisation increase volunteerism of cadres and voters and reduce the cost of politics. If the costs of political and administrative classes are too high compared to the service they offer, anti-political trends occur.  Ideologies need to espouse practical policies beneficial to the public life and associate them to democratic polity and constitutional state without being totally conformist.

The institutional structure of democratic life relates to the polity and its ability to coordinate the functions of sub-systems of society, sustaining their high stake in creating political order and regulating activities of all actors without serious atrophy.  The regular flow of feedback of communication between Nepali leaders and the electorates and attentive public make the former responsive. Like electoral games, it is one form of legitimacy to rule. Communication equally performs signaling of problems, steering and coordinating roles of various strata of population caught in the social, economic and political pyramid of power and demanding the realisation of their unrealised constitutional rights and resolution of problems they daily encounter.  

The democratic life aims to promote freedom, wellbeing, opportunity and dignity of people and improve their conditions of living. In a peaceful political condition, Nepalis can learn from their experience of failure and success, get an idea of how to shape, regulate and envision the purpose of democratic politics — to acquire public goods.  The rebellious spirit of Nepalis has released and restored the flame of democracy -- liberty, justice and equality and endured impulses to keep these values alive. The democratic dynamic is thus sustained by Nepali critical masses’ unrestrained passion for its gaze and continuous struggle to mobilise popular sentiments for it. 

Yet, frequent social struggles, anomie and upsurge against the authority of civic bodies can cut the civility of society for a rational action and create political stability. Wobble political conditions defeats the purpose of politics to organise large scale collective action to promote public and national interests. Nepal as a social welfare state entails a coherence of policy making and policy-affecting public to keep political life in a delicate balance. The other is leadership succession in each political party to circulate elites of each generation and social classes that wards off internal tension and prevents factionalism or split of parties.

The grasp of democratic dividends requires reducing the scope of violence in political life. Its life should be regulated by rule of law, give and take, action coordination and compromise of legitimate interests. Its imagination and vision, norms and laws are coded in the constitution of Nepal, written by the elected representatives of people. If popular sovereignty assumes the true spirit of democratic life, it means no surrender or tribal conformity of people to powerful elite animus to civic culture. What matters is their constitutional enlightenment, indomitable courage and political maturity encouraged by informed habits. This helps them realise democratic and constitutional ideals in public life and institutions beyond flamboyant sesquipedalian speeches of populist leaders.    

Democratic life reaches its recess if popular aspiration for change remains sterile, institutions suffer from integrity and accountability deficits and political actors do not develop character attuned to the culture of constitutionalism. This leaves people’s lives to the lyric tragedy of poverty, inequality, joblessness and worst of all without any choice other than to bid adieu to the nation for faraway lands for better living conditions and fight every winds of fate as last stand of hope. The abiding hope on scientific knowledge and technology to alleviate Nepalis from harsh toil and shackles of fatalism can help solve problems. But this hope remains elusive for their selective use thus perpetuating development gaps. 

The great revolution of science on which educated Nepalis pin optimism for a better life of choice, liberty and egalitarian progress remain and their human rights struggle unfinished. The material progress meant to be achieved by the control of nature and the poor proved to be a false paradigm. It only marveled to a path of ecological catastrophe and fall of survival means. The progress could not keep pace with cultural maturity and coordination of human efforts. The economic instinct of animus dominandi, efficiency and competition has bred conflicts of various sorts and decoupled ethics from constitutional practice.

Democratic life is precisely adopted to overcome the precarious existence of Nepalis and provide opportunity for all, even those at the rock bottom of progress and uplift them from a precarious condition without a sense of constitutional and human rights—the very domain of politics.   Several fads of good politics predisposed one to believe in a systemic view of democratic life rooted in interconnection, interdependence, reciprocity, mutual help and peaceful coexistence. Obviously, democratic life provides a great compass for the aggregation, articulation and communication of popular interests and preferences to the centers of power. It uplifts the spirit of people for self-expression and self-realisation on the basis of various scales of values, preferences, interests and issues.  

Democratic life reduces the utility of fear and violence in politics.  It is a non-zero sum game played without inflicting damage on the opposition which is deemed as a conscience keeper.  Constitutional means are designed to prevent the tyranny of the majority and distributional struggle of the minority by checks and balances of power and local self-governance. Democracy purports to settle conflicts on the basis of reason, deliberation, law and the science of optimisation. Rivals do not indulge in a game of life for a life existing in pre-historic times but adopt the civic virtues of moderation, toleration and solidarity. The institutions of enlightenment, justice and watchdog keep due diligence on how power is acquired, used and transferred to the next generation of leaders and across the society. They are the sources to cleanse politics and make political life sublime. 

A lively democratic life is feasible if the state does not keep silence over the massive migration of youth and the polity keeps a balance among the government, opposition and the people constituted as a silent majority.  The diffusion of democratic values, disposition and practices in society can sparkle political life tainted by corruption, pilferage, crime, cronyism, etc. that reduces the chances of inclusive progress. When innovation and creativity are sidelined, chicanery of politics alone cannot prepare Nepalis for active political life. Already political indoctrination has multiplied the high birth rate of educated ignorant who do not speak truth to power but are inclined to indulge in multiple interpretations of truth to keep political correctedness with the help of ill-advised spin-doctors.  

  Democratic life occurs in a context where people live, engage in personal business and organise productive activities for livelihood, exchange and progress about the higher order. Appropriate public policy and planning are vital functions of elected bodies to reward Nepali peasants for productive life and to dynamise the economy. Nepal has to struggle very hard to remove the tag of fragile state by improving vital sectors .It can alter an extra-constitutional mode of change every time that has limped society’s glue and bits of the state institutions to create security and order. As a result, orderly democratic life failed to keep continuity in the various phases of history where each political movement sought constitutional change without altering the basic nature of political culture.

Promises of good life

The other reason is failure to satisfy popular expectations attached to democracy. It has stitched politics with a bundle of promises of good life without acquiring institutional, material and moral muscle to realise them. The third is unable to fulfill growing international obligations including sustainable development goals, mitigation of climate change, securing human rights, social justice, women’s rights and rights of micro minorities, peace, etc.  The grasp of these obligations can enhance the civilized image of the nation and greater level of creditworthiness in terms of easing aid flow, trade, investments and support in infrastructure developments. 

Yet when democratic life becomes more ascriptive and less meritocratic its repairs becomes an uphill task and internal tension than reconciliation becomes its political culture. Already the growth of ideology-neutral, patrimonial leadership has increased the costs of Nepali politics and administration where parliament only reflects the partisan medium of popular will. It is becoming vociferous while the inputs of those affected by the public policies are yet to be realised. A democratic life in Nepal can be maintained by a political culture shared by all people, not only the organized and powerful actors of society.

(Former Reader at the Department of Political Science, TU, Dahal writes on political and social issues.)