Transforming a praetorian polity: the political economy of democratization in Pakistan

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the hegemonic role of the military vis-à-vis elected civilian governments in Pakistan from the vantage point of institutional political economy. Absence of “good governance” on the part of elected civilian governments is often depicted as the key underlying factor that allows the military to maintain its dominance over state and society. In sharp contrast, we argue that the emphasis on “good” governance as a pathway to democratic consolidation ignores socio-economic and institutional factors which facilitate the successful reproduction of Pakistan’s militarized hegemonic order. The paper argues that the military hegemony is rooted in the prevailing political economic structure mediated by forces of imperialism. By drawing from Erik Olin Wright’s (2010. Envisioning Real Utopias) tripartite conceptual scheme of “symbiotic,” “interstitial,” and “ruptural” transformation strategies, we offer a new framework to analyze processes of democratic transformation in Pakistan. We contend that the consolidation of democracy and civilian supremacy mandates a shift away from a narrow focus on governance to transformative politics. The latter has to be centered around an alternative hegemonic conception counterposed to the established military-centric order that would incorporate aspirations of socio-spatially and economically deprived segments from the ethnic peripheries, as well as progressive and working-class constituencies within metropolitan Pakistan.