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By Shashi P.B.B. Malla

In competitive political systems the ‘Rational Efficient’ or ‘Cadre” party assumes a pluralistic view of society in which party is but one form of organization.

The party’s role is to act as a broker between many different groups, avoiding issues of internal party democracy, ideology, and even party programme.

Its role is to maximize the vote for the party.

Winning elections is the only test of success.

The ‘Party Democracy’ or ‘Mass Membership’ model in contrast assumes a majoritarian view of society in which the party attempts to articulate and aggregate interests and principles in a clear programme.

Winning elections is important, but also important are issues of internal party democracy and the extent to which the party in government implements the party programme.

The Rational Efficient Party has a loose concept of membership and can operate on the basis of informal cliques or cadres, unconcerned with internal processes and considerations of intra-party democracy.

In contrast, the Party Democracy has a highly organized membership and is committed to internal party membership.

The American Republican Party and the British Conservative Party would traditionally fall close to the Rational Efficient end of the spectrum.

Social democratic parties in contrast would be closer to the Party Democracy end of the spectrum, though they are certainly influenced by pragmatic issues of electoral success.

Nepal’s party system is still evolving.

The Communist Parties which were heavily influenced by their fraternal parties in Russia and China, and had a strong ideological base, lost their doctrinal principles after the implosion of the Soviet Union and China’s ascent to a major ‘State Capitalist’ economic power.

The Nepali Congress started off being a democratic socialist party but has since degenerated into a party without principles.

All the major Nepali political parties cannot be compared to those in the West or even India, as they are a product subgenera’s, i.e. the result of unique internal developments, with, of course, some external inputs.

Nepali political parties are basically paternalistic heavily influenced by notions of oriental despotism.

If there is any comparison, then there are the similarities to the Mafia families of Italy and the U.S., where the ‘Don’ is the all-powerful strongman.

The rank and file of the party is beholden to the current top leadership which distributes all the gains of office – including lucrative posts and ambassadorships.

This can also be compared to a kind of ‘patron-client’ relationship.

The parties have even devised a ‘quota system’ for high posts, including ambassadors!

Thus, nothing good will come of the grand coalition of the CPN-UML and Nepali Congress and their designs of amending the Constitution and consolidating a so-called ‘two-party system’.

It is just a means of consolidating their power.

The Nepali political system – above all the structure and functioning of the major political parties – is rotten to the core.

No amount of supposed reform or ostensible restructuring will be to the benefit of the Nepalese people.

This has led to unnecessary ‘politicization’ of the entire political system, including the civil service.

In most of Nepal’s political parties there is no ‘internal democracy’ – no debate at all.

The question of succession is not debated at all!        

The writer can be reached at: shashipbmalla@hotmail.com