People’s Multiparty Democracy: Path Towards the Socialist Mode of Production

Abstract

Nepal’s post-1990 political transition opened urgent debates about the ideological direction of its democratic project, particularly regarding the relationship between multiparty democracy and socialist economic transformation. This article examines how Madan Bhandari’s People’s Multiparty Democracy (PMPD) theorizes and operationalizes a constitutional pathway toward a socialist mode of production in Nepal. Employing a qualitative research design grounded in the Marxist theory of the mode of production, the study analyzes PMPD as a primary document alongside related party documents, constitutional texts, and relevant secondary literature to assess its internal logic and transformative potential. The findings reveal that PMPD transcends both single-party vanguardism and liberal pluralism by synthesizing socialist objectives with competitive multiparty frameworks. It posits that bureaucratic monopoly and disconnection from popular will obstruct economic transformation, and proposes instead a constitutional order in which competing parties consensually uphold socialist principles—including collective and state ownership, democratic management, equitable distribution, and people-centered development—while maintaining periodic free and fair elections, rule of law, and fundamental rights. The article further finds that PMPD, as the guiding principle of the CPN (UML) since its Sixth General Convention, institutionalizes accountability, innovation, and mass political participation as mechanisms for advancing socialist production relations. These findings are significant because they suggest that PMPD offers a theoretically distinct model for socialist transition in pluralist democracies of the Global South — one that reconciles ideological commitment with democratic legitimacy without resorting to authoritarian consolidation.