"Nepal's Experiment with "Traditional Democracy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2860932 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Leo E Rose (University of California, Berkeley, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1963 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 16 |
| Publication date | 1963-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Pacific Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0030-851X • E-ISSN: 1715-3379 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2754771 |
| OpenAlex | W2314245833 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
ON DECEMBER I5, i960 King Mahendra dismissed the first popularly elected ministry in Nepal's history after a scant eighteen months in office. The Prime Minister, B. P. Koirala, and the other ministers, as well as a large proportion of the political party leaders in Nepal, were imprisoned and the elected parliament, in which the Congress held a two-thirds majority, was dissolved. King Mahendra assumed emergency powers under the provisions of the isg Constitution and supplementary legislation. The December coup marked the restoration of what amounted to a period of direct rule by King Mahendra, and much of the political pattern characteristic of previous direct rule periods (i955 and I957-I958) was again evident, but with one significant difference. Prior to the promulgation of the i959 Constitution, the direct rule system was viewed as a stop-gap measure. The ultimate objective, as specified in several of the King's statements, was parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy. While the i959 Constitution included some provisions scarcely compatible with the principles of constitutional monarchy as broadly conceived by most intellectuals, there was the possibility that institutional and procedural developments would counterbalance these aspects of the Constitution. Until the sudden dismissal of the Congress government this appeared to be the case. During this period King Mahendra never publicly indicated any basic dissatisfaction with the system and, indeed, its comparatively smooth operation was due in no small part to the restraint with which he used the broad powers granted to the crown in the i959 Constitution. All this changed, of course, after the dismissal of the B. P. Koirala cabinet, and the changes were even more fundamental than first seemed probable. In justifying his action the King not only criticized the Congress government but attacked the parliamentary system itself, which he characterized as a clumsy Western imposition incompatible with Nepal's traditions, history and objective conditions. What was required, he stated, was a new Nepali political system that conformed to the spirit of Nepal's traditions and culture-Nepalism as one of his new ministers characterized it. King Mahendra obviously had more than a change in government in
Democracy · Political science · Politics · Bangladesh Politics, Society, and Development · Law · Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics · Sociopolitical Dynamics in Nepal
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,06 |
| Citation span | 1964 - 2025 (62) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |