Transforming Nepal’s political system: party positions and public opinion (2004-2012)

Doctoral Thesis

My PhD study analyses the structure and dynamics of opinions of the general public of Nepal with the radical transformation of the country’s political system in the recent past, with a particular focus on the four major state restructuring issues (i.e. four major political reforms: republicanism, secularism, multilingualism and federalism), and compares them with the positions taken by Nepal’s major political parties on these reforms. The four reforms together made up the transformation that was eventually codified into the new Constitution of the country in September 2015. However, even when the new Constitution was promulgated, the public opinion had not preferred to all four reforms. This research reveals that there is a dominant role of political elites from the major political parties in the transformation of country’s political system. However, the parties also moderated their positions to some extent on some of the issues. This is clearest on the abolition of the Hindu...Show moreMy PhD study analyses the structure and dynamics of opinions of the general public of Nepal with the radical transformation of the country’s political system in the recent past, with a particular focus on the four major state restructuring issues (i.e. four major political reforms: republicanism, secularism, multilingualism and federalism), and compares them with the positions taken by Nepal’s major political parties on these reforms. The four reforms together made up the transformation that was eventually codified into the new Constitution of the country in September 2015. However, even when the new Constitution was promulgated, the public opinion had not preferred to all four reforms. This research reveals that there is a dominant role of political elites from the major political parties in the transformation of country’s political system. However, the parties also moderated their positions to some extent on some of the issues. This is clearest on the abolition of the Hindu state. The elites maintained their decision to move to a secular state, but added to the constitution a definition of ‘secularism’ that included protection for traditional religious practices. With regard to language policy, the eventual implementation of multilingualism in which Nepali remains the administrative language at the national level and other languages can be recognized as administrative languages in each province, can also be interpreted as a concession to public opinion. The promulgation of the 2015 Constitution formally proved that the political elites of Nepal were the benevolent guardians of political tolerance and minority rights.
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State restructuring issues

Republicanism