Remittances and Consolidation of Loktantra: Connecting the Dots
- Sanjeev HumagainDetails
Remittances and Consolidation of Loktantra: Connecting the Dots
20 January 2019, Sunday
Sanjeev Humagain
PhD, Comparative Politics, Yonsei University
Abstract:
The academic inquiries in nexus between improvements in the standard of living and political regime mostly focus on a sequence analysis: modernization through industrialization, appearance and empowerment of specific groups, e.g. middle class, development of a new political culture and balance of power among new and old groups or classes. Despite several studies on role of remittances in politics, patronage relations and voting behavior, corruption and so forth, the causal mechanism of remittances based on socioeconomic transformation in de/institutionalization of democracy has received little attention.
This study presents a political economic approach in examining the role of remittances in de/institutionalization of democracy – in highly remittance dependent countries –focusing on change in agent structure and balance of power among them: how we can examine the impact of remittances in appearance and empowerment of certain social groups or classes, change in power relations and the role of new group or classes in de/institutionalization of democracy.
The study argues that the appearance or absence of the intermediate group that plays role in political change or stability in remittance-based transformation mostly depends on nature of occupational shift of the returnees (and their family members). It, moreover, along with learning effects – social activities of people from home country and the nature of politics in migrated country– determines the capability and willingness of new actors in power balancing, a determinative factor to predict the probability of consolidation of democracy. How can we examine the role of remittances in de/institutionalization of Loktantra in Nepal, a regime with mix nature of liberal democracy and multiculturalism, applying the presented research framework, is discussed in the final part of the study.