Political scientists in their evaluation of the regime whether it be democratic or authoritarian show that citizens are not satisfied with the performance of the government. Mostly citizens are found showing less trust on political actors especially the elected public officials. The elected public officials are not, typically, held in very high esteem which has its impact and repercussions on dynamics of citizen-state relations.
In Nepal, though no such systematic empirical study has been conducted or available on the subject, the voices of anger and frustration vented sporadically indicate that the common people are not happy with the way political actors are haggling and bickering to serve their own interest. Retrospectively speaking, we have adopted and practiced the democratic form of government beginning from 1990. With a view to deepening and widen democratisation process, we have moved further ahead by promulgating the federal democratic constitution in 2015 in which the values and institutions of republicanism are fully incorporated and embedded.
Democratic innovation
The real motive of these democratic innovation and transformation is to ensure that the exercise of the state power is carried out in accordance with the consent and participation of the citizens. Moreover, the major objective of democratic polity we have adopted is also to achieve that the relationship between state and citizens is strengthened and bonded further. The democratic system offers structures and process of communication between ordinary citizens and the state.
However, it is found that this is not being properly cultivated and followed, as local, state (Pradesh) and federal governments seem not cognizant of the need to have dialogue and communication among themselves and also with citizens on a constant basis. The governing mechanism and process are more or less skewed against the interests and aspirations of citizens. Even today interests and whims of politicians and bureaucrats do prevail at all levels. The policy legislation process is so bureaucratic and top-down that the federal government does not bother to consult with sub national government - state (Pradesh) and local- while formulating policies on the subjects that fall within the competency of sub national government.
The local government stakeholders do complain time and again that the federal government has encroached on their jurisdictions at the cost of federal polity. Consultation with citizen stakeholders and soliciting views of civic forums and groups on issues of civic interests has become a matter of distant cry. As a result, civic interests have been neglected. Most deficient part in our political and administrative system is that the public officials hold and control the public information in a very tight fist manner. There asymmetrical relationship dominates so far as sharing of information is concerned.
The asymmetries of information allow the officials to pursue the willful and indiscriminate discretion to implement policies that are more in their interests than favouring the citizens. Access to information and knowledge for meaningful and substantive participation in decision making process in producing public goods and services has been the key elements of the democratic political power. More important in this respect is that the modern governments are required to work towards empowerment of citizen and promotion of their well- being.
The vital part in this respect is that the citizens should be endowed with cognitive orientation and democratic competence to engage with the state institutions to seek accountability and claim responsive services from the providers. Undoubtedly, Nepal enjoys an enabling legal framework to build a vibrant transparent regime to access information. The institutional and legal infrastructures like right to Information Act, Local Government Operation Act, Good Governance Act, and National Information Commission, among others, are already in place.
They are undoubtedly the important arsenals for a transparent, participatory and open democratic system. However, their implementation is weak and poor. As a result, public organisations and agencies fail abysmally to deliver services to the people. Moreover, they are not subjected to civic scrutiny, sanction and discipline for their non-performance and poor result. The informed discussions on the policies being pursued and projects being implemented are hardly the case. The absence of the informed democratic dialogue, deliberation and inputs has created the agency problems both at the local and federal level.
The legal and institutional frameworks like Right to Information Act and Good Governance Act can yield positive outcomes only when they are effectively implemented and put to
practice in an ambient social and institutional setting. The institutional design for transparency and accountability in itself is not sufficient to produce results. They should be coupled with awareness, knowledge, capacity and willingness of the both government officials and citizens- for information sharing and the democratized positive engagement. The information access comprises many aspects and dimensions. The information may be related to budgets, planning documentation, contracts, procurement, and government organizations/ projects and their operations and so on. However, this information are not properly shared and disseminated. As a result, accountability system is very weak in structural and functional terms. In fact, citizen stakeholders are not fully aware of its provisions and lack competence and know how as to how to use and do the rich harvest of them.
Political will
Moreover, political will and commitment seems lacking and the culture of secrecy reigns dominant. In fact, it is necessary that right to information law should be implemented effectively as the process and tool for promoting the culture of information sharing and building vigilant citizenry. Similarly, an enhanced communication and dialogue between citizen and state needs to be enhanced and participatory governance requires to be strengthened in tandem with the provisions of the federal democratic constitution. In order for this to materialize the local government system instituted in our federal constitution should be strengthened and made participatory by opening more spaces for positive engagement of citizens to nurture citizen-state relations.
(Rijal, PhD, contributes regularly to TRN and writes on contemporary political, economic and governance issues. rijalmukti@gmail.com)
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