Political Parties of Nepal
Krishna Hachhethu
Following King Gyanendra’s assumption of executive powers on October 4, 2002, the multiparty system in Nepal, reintroduced in 1990 after three decades of partyless Panchayat regime, finds itself today in a state of uncertainty. From one perspective, the royal step may be viewed as a reaction to the failure of political parties and party governments on several fronts, particularly in dealing with the violent Maoist insurgency. The violent Maoist ‘people’s war’, which began in February 1996, has been intensifying rapidly and spreading all across the country. Both multiparty democracy and the mainstream political parties remain trapped between the far-Right forces led by the Palace on one side and the ultra-Left armed Maoists on the other. Against this background, this paper—organised into three sections—tries to review, both intensively and extensively, Nepal’s decade-long experience with the multiparty system. Section 1 has two components: a review of the political developments in the post-1990 period and brief profiles of the leading political parties. Section 2 focuses on the internal dynamics of individual political parties, such as party organisation, authority structure, factions, etc, from a comparative perspective. Section 3 deals with the convergences and divergences of political parties on ideological grounds and policy issues. It also analyses the positions of the parties on emerging political, social and economic issues.
The first in the Baha
Occasional Paper Series is by Krishna Hachhethu of the Centre for Nepal and
Asian Studies, Tribhuvan University. ‘Political Parties of Nepal’ provides a
concise overview of the history of the major political parties in Nepal. It
describes the origins, development and profiles of Nepal’s major political
parties and analyses the cultures and structures of these parties, including
the inherent factionalism, (lack of) internal democracy and funding besides
examining the ideologies and policies of the parties. The main focus of the
paper is the changes that were seen after the restoration of multiparty
democracy in 1990 and especially in response to both national and international
environments, including the Maoist insurgency from 1996 onwards and the royal
takeover of October 2002. The writer contends that since all the parties have
faced political crises, both internally and at the national level, they have
not been able to devote much time to formulate meaningful policies. The paper
concludes that the political parties have lost their credibility and that
despite some major changes, the parties continue to be centralised, oligarchic,
non-transparent and susceptible to internal conflicts and factionalism.
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Author(s)
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Krishna Hachhethu
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Place of Publication
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Nepal
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Publisher
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Social Science Baha
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Publication year
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2006
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Series
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Baha Occasional Papers 1
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Total pages
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76
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Language
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English
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