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CHHALPHAL DISCUSSION SERIES - BOSTON
Title: “Democracy in Nepal: What went wrong, what worked and what should be done?"
Speaker: Mahendra Lawoti, Ph.D.,Assistant Professor,
Department of Political Science, Western Michigan University
Time:7:15 pm
Date: April 20, 2006 (Thursday)
Location:
Mather Junior Common Room, 10 Copwerthwaite St., Harvard University, Cambridge MA, 02138
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=10+Copwerthwaite+St.,+Cambridge+MA,+02138
Synopsis:
During Nepal’s democratic experience from 1990-2002 some sectors worked while others failed. Dr. Lawoti will argue that the two major common threads that tie the successes and failures are the “distribution of power†(or the lack of it) and “accountability mechanisms†(or its absence). Central governance saw crisis of governance (corruption, rapid government changes, growing insurgency etc.) because of excessive power centralization in the executive with very weak accountability mechanisms. At the same time, the media, social justice movements, community forestry etc. developed because power devolution provided space for them to perform. Based on the Nepali experience and theories of democracy, the presentation will argue that for Nepal’s democracy to perform better when it is restored there should be extensive power devolution among different levels and branches of government on the one hand while, on the other, the polity should develop effective accountability mechanisms to check power abuses.
Speaker:
Mahendra Lawoti, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo.
He is the author of Towards a Democratic Nepal: Inclusive Political Institutions for a Multicultural Society (Sage 2005, third reprint 2006). His teaching and research interests cover international development, democratization and political institutions, ethnic politics, social movements and insurgencies, and South Asian politics. He is currently revising his dissertation into a book Exclusionary Democratization in Nepal: Political Institutions and Elite Attitude in a Comparative Perspective. He is also editing a book titled Contentious Politics and Democratization in Nepal: The Maoist Insurgency, Identity Politics, and Socio-political Movements after 1990. He has published many peer reviewed and other journal articles, book chapters, and research notes. Currently he is engaged as the principal researcher for the Nepal Study Group of the East-West Center Washington Project on State Building Challenges in Asia funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York and the East-West Center. He is also studying democracy and pluralism in Nepal for a project based at Jawaharlal Nehru University and funded by the Ford Foundation.
About ChhalPhal:
ChhalPhal Discussion Series is a regular Nepal-related discussion program held in the Boston area. For more information, please contact chhalphal@chhahari.com.
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED. STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES.
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