Retraction Notice

On 17th September 2021 the Editorial Board of the Journal of Political Science agreed to retract the article ‘Interprovincial Relations in Formative Phase of Federal Nepal’ published in Journal of Political Science, Vol.21 pages 9-18 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.3126/jps.v21i0.35259 ) because the article was found to have significant overlap with other published sources.

Structural Determinants of Democratic Consolidation and Nepal’s Loktantra Since 2017

Despite frequent political changes, democratic consolidation is not a popular question among the researchers of democracy in Nepal. This article aims to connect the theoretical discussion of consolidation of democracy, mostly focusing on the structural factors and Nepali Loktantra. Two findings of this study are particularly important for the discussion of the consolidation of Loktantra in Nepal. First, the macro structural factors – e.g., economic modernization, regime type, and party -system – make pessimistic predictions on future of Nepali democracy. In other words, the macro structural conditions are unfavorable for the consolidation of the democracy in contemporary Nepal. Second, procedural dimensions of the democracy are insufficient to define Nepali Loktantra. The newly adopted regime has attempted to merge few components of non-majoritarian democracy too. We need more critical evaluation on the characteristics of Nepali Loktantra. If it is different with a procedural democracy, its relation with socio-economic structure also should be different.

Women Participation in Local Development: A Study of Kaski District

The purpose of this study is to examine the women participation in local development of Kaski district in Nepal. The nation provides equal opportunities to the women. Despite that, they are strong enough and empowered in local development? Nepalese women are struggling for equal opportunity in society. This paper is qualitative research. It is based on primary and secondary data based on descriptive and analytical paper. In the local election held in 2017, 152 women were elected to the local government in Kaski district. They are Dalit and non-Dalit both. Constitutionally thirty-three percent women are required to be the participants on each level of the government of Nepal. It is a legal provision for participation in local governments. Similarly, women are the participants in the federal, provincial and local governments of Nepal. The constitution has provided women participation on policy level as well as civil service, Nepal Police and Nepal Army and other sectors of the nation. Now, the federal democratic republic nation of Nepal has been practicing inclusive democracy. It is a great achievement for the Nepalese women. Now, 21th century as democratic country like Nepal needs meaningful women participation on a local level. The women need equal opportunity in the social, economic and political sector. Local level of Kaski district women participate with empower on politics as well as development activities as planning, budgeting, judicial leadership. These are the symbolic empowerment of women in local development.

Conceptual and Theoretical Debates on Social Movement Studies

This paper is a review based synthesis on the conceptual and theoretical debates on social movements (SMs). It aims to analyse the debate from different theoretical lens which are popularly used in the studies of SMs. The paper then explores prominent research issues that could be grounded at the local contexts of the movements. The main argument of the paper is that the discourse of SM is not linear and monolithic. Rather, it is a poly centric notion and thus essentially contested in terms of theorization and research.

Satisfaction Level of Old Age Allowance Receiving Elderly People in Kushma Municipality

This paper discusses the contribution and effectiveness of old age allowance among the elderly people and also comes up with the factors associated with the satisfaction level of old age allowance. A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out among 136 elderly people receiving old age allowance in Kushma Municipality, Parbat. The information was collected from people aged 60 years and above through interviews using semi-structured questionnaires. The blend of qualitative and quantitative data was employed for the study. The majority of the elderly population was in the age group of 70-75 years with 68 percent elderly people illiterate. The result shows a significant association of the level of satisfaction of the allowances received with the physical infrastructure and socio-economic development regardless of age, gender and caste/ethnicity. This gives an impetus for making policies and programmes for the elderly in order for them to live with happiness and satisfaction.

Local Government Financing Practice and Challenges in Developing Countries with Reference to Nepal

The fundamental problem confronting most local authorities, especially those managing cities in developing countries, is the widening gap between the availability of financial resources and municipal spending needs. One of the main reasons for this increasing fiscal gap is the rapid growth of urban populations, which creates an ever-increasing demand for public services, new public infrastructure, and its maintenance. Most cities in developing countries depend mostly on central government transfers, with lesser revenues derived from property taxation and service charges. The main aim of this study is to review the scholarly published documents regarding the responsible governing system of the local government in the developing economy and to observe the challenges to them to manage fiscal imbalances. Looking at the practice of fiscal federalism and economic decentralization, there is no uniformity in the global experience. Developed countries are at the forefront of this agenda while developing countries have different experiences. It is important to find the right path with the appropriate solution to the problem seen from the international experiment and move forward accordingly. It is important not only to make laws but also to achieve prosperous prosperity through their proper use and for that it is important to understand that the implementation of the law should be done in the right spirit.

Nepal's Engagement in BRI and MCC: Implications on Nepal's Geopolitics and Foreign Policy

Nepal's Engagement in BRI and MCC: Implications on Nepal's Geopolitics and Foreign Policy discusses on Nepal's engagement in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the USA's Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). In doing so, it defines BRI, MCC, and the perspective of Heartland under Mackinder's geopolitical theories briefly. The paper critically analyzes the issues and consequences of BRI and MCC on Nepal's geopolitics and foreign policy. It examines the BRI and MCC at global arena briefly that how they have been going global. Meanwhile, the paper assesses the relation of the Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) and the MCC. In addition, the paper critically evaluates the legacy of Nepal's foreign policy and the implication of MCC as per the Nepal Constitution-2015. It adopts with qualitative method. Finally, the paper concludes that Nepal has three options about the MCC compact and the best one is making a serious diplomatic effort from the Nepalese side to re-negotiate with the USA to review some provisions of the agreement.

Women Representation in Nepalese Local Election 2017: Issues and Challenges

Democracy is for power and justice. Women's participation in politics is for achieving these twin goals. The main objective of this study is to reviews the women representation at Nepalese local in political domain. The essential data and information are collected from secondary sources. Reports, information, facts, figures, policies, acts and program published by Nepal Election Commission-2017 and other related sources reports are basically used in this paper. One of the key factors to ensure higher and meaningful participation of women in politics is these favorable (reservation) electoral provisions. The 2017 local elections were significant in advancing female political representation in Nepal. However, what has been achieved so far is not enough and continued concentrated action is essential. There are more issues and challenges to be resolve for fair and meaningful political participation of women. The women's representation in politics should not be just a numeric representation. It should rise in the societal awareness for women and build capacity of female leaders and ultimately helps in the overall development of the country.

Foucault’s Dismissal of Ideology: A Critique

Foucault dismisses ideology as an object of investigation in understanding power relations for three important reasons bearing on his rejection of true-false distinction, dismissal of reference to subject and trivialization of ideology. This paper argues against Foucault's claim and shows that investigation of ideology constitutes an important task in understanding relation of domination—which is substantiated by demonstrating firstly that the true-false distinction is not only ontologically real but also morally warranted; and secondly that ideology is not merely a passive effect of infrastructure of an oppressive social system but is in reciprocal relation with it and therefore plays an indispensably important role in maintaining the system in general and the present-day capitalism in particular.

Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal: An Assessment of the Rule of Law

The Rule of law, a set of principles of governance, apply to all individuals, organizations and the government itself. Democracy is a political system governed by the rule of law. No rule of law means no democratic future. This paper aims to assess the state of the rule of law under the new political setup, taking the rule of law as dependent variable and fundamental rights, corruption, open parliament and independent judiciary as independent variables. To measure the rule of law, necessary information was collected from printed and online sources. A federal democratic republic can grow healthy only when there exists the rule of law and efficient state institutions. The fundamental problems in strengthening the rule of law obstructed by the tendency of personalization and frequent intervention in state institutions, high level of corruption at policy level, poor legislative bill formulation, the controversial appointing process of the judges and the political dominations. The acceptance of international norms to address the justice and to promote human rights, adhering to the principle of inclusion and equality, maintaining transparency rule in the appointment in various constitutional bodies and keeping out of executive influence to maintain impartial and independent institutions can help in strengthening the rule of law.