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End of Ideology?
This is in reference to Dev Raj Dahal's article on Political Ideology and Development in Nepal . He is quite right that the ascendancy of neoliberal policies in mechanics of Nepali politics determine development in Nepal . We know that after the disintegration of Soviet Union , which championed the doctrine of communism, scholars following Francis Fukuyama have termed the triumph of liberal democracy as the "end of history". 'Endism' enjoyed a revival in the works of Fukuyama . The "end of ideology" with the triumph of socially concerned liberal pragmatism is due to the decline of extremist ideologies. On the other hand theorists on democracy opine the beginning of new polarization of democratic ideals, the New Right (neoliberalists or neoconservartives) vs the New left.
Briefly, New Right stresses on minarchy or minimal state, and on the construction of a strong government to enforce law and order. Along with this their key objective is lasseiz faire or free market society. Whereas the New Left consists of ideas inspired by Rousseau, anarchists, and libertarian and 'pluralists' Marxist positions. It emerged primarily as a result of political upheavals in Europe and the US in 1960s, internal debates on the left and dissatisfaction with the heritage of theory, liberal and Marxist. With the loss of faith in conventional party system they argued for new ways of thinking about diversity, liberty and civic responsibility. So they advocate the replacement of the term 'socialism' with 'radical democracy.' Whether it is the discourse on the 'end of ideology' or the beginning of radical democracy for New Left (the riseof Left parties in Latin America ), the trend of democratization has led to the opening up the state to, and for the public. Thus, many autocratic and conservative political systems have to give way to the forces of democratization.
In Nepal during the late 1980s the low economic growth of the country with growing fiscal deficits and declining international reserves resulted in an acute macro-economic instability. The Panchayat government adopted stabilization programme of IMF in 1985 and SAP of the World Bank, and Structural Adjustment facility of IMF for 1987. The neoliberal prescriptions worsened the economic situation of the country hitting hard the common people. No alternative to it in sight, successive democratic governments fine tuned neoliberal policies. If today Nepal has failed in development it is partly because of exogeneous influence especially donors strings attached to aid. National constituency had not been taken into confidence in implementing new economic policies The corollary is that a nanny state, a state with extensive social responsibilities has become a myth. The Himalayan task is to mould national poltical economy for ensuring social and economic justice and harmonise it with international political economy (IPE). The challenge is to materialise demands to IPE to the developmental needs of common people.
Rajeev Kunwar, 184, Seema Galli
PM's Lane, Lazimpat, Kathmandu
Nepal
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