Political Decay and Institutional Crisis in Nepal: An Analysis of Democratic Governance Challenges

Abstract

This paper analyses the political decay and institutional crisis in Nepal in the context of democratic rule after 2015 Constitution and adoption of federal system. While there have been ambitious constitutional reforms for the country's decentralisation, inclusion, and state capability enhancement; Nepal is still faced with persistent challenges such as political instability, institutional coordination crisis, bureau politicisation and eroding trust. An integrated conceptual model drawing from Fukuyama's theory of political decay, historical institutionalism and governance theory is used to account for the structural and functional roots of institutional weakness. A qualitative conceptual research design approach is used for the study, with secondary sources including scholarly articles, policy reports, governance indices and constitutional provisions. It has been concluded through the study of different aspect that Nepalese institutional crisis is formed by interaction between fragmented party system, executive instability, weak institutional independence and problems in the implementation of federalism, resulting in deterioration of institution functioning and democratic legitimacy. Hence, political decay in Nepal is not simply a short transitional problem but rather a structural reality dependent on institutional path-dependent and governance failure; as for sustained consolidation, state institution should regain institutional independence, party system should be institutionalised, accountability measures should be introduced and trust has to be regained.