Pakistan is an interesting model to consider, in the context
of the readings, firstly Pakistan has experienced 4 military coups, but what is
interesting is that these military coups have often had popular support. The
last coup was very popular initially, one manifestation of this is the high
approval rating General Musharaff had in the early years of his rule.
In 2013, a survey
conducted by the British council revealed that only a mere 29% favored
democracy whereas a large amount of the population was in favor of Sharia laws
and military rule. These statistics are a cause for concern, especially due to
the fact that the youth of Pakistan, which constituted the majority of the sample
for this survey, form the majority of the population. It would not be extreme
to say that this is democracy’s last chance in Pakistan, it must deliver
otherwise we may see an abrupt change in the political system and even the
larger social system.
It is not surprising that the classifications of the
political systems were largely shaped by the historical developments of the
time. A quote by Winston Churchill describes this in a perfect manner “History
is written by the victors”.
2 comments:
I think your post highlights the points of classifying regimes according to specific features. While there is a general problem associated with classifying regimes, there is also the problem of regimes having features from multiple regimes. In the example of Pakistan, we have both, dominant features of an Islamic and Military Regime under the label of a democratic government.
In my opinion Pakistan has yet to experience democracy to the fullest. The structure of Pakistan's government can be said to be that of an oligarchy at most, an oligarchy between the military and the bureaucracy. Therefore we should not blame Pakistan for having failed at implementing democracy within the country because even though we are under the illusion of a democracy, a country is yet to operate under a fully democratic system of government.
Even though I agree that democracy isn't the most famous of regimes in Pakistan, if practiced in its purest, I believe it can lead to an efficient and prosperous state.
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