Constitutional resilience in South Asia / edited by Swati Jhaveri, Tarunabh Khaitan, Dinesha Samararatne.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Jhaveri, Swati, editor.

Khaitan, Tarunabh, editor.

Samararatne, Dinesha, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Democracy--South Asia.

Democracy.

Representative government and representation--South Asia.

Representative government and representation.

South Asia--Politics and government.

South Asia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (505 pages)

Place of Publication:

Oxford, England : Hart Publishing, [2023]

Summary:

South Asia has had a tumultuous and varied experience with constitutional democracy that predates the recent rise in populism (and its study) in established democracies. And yet, this region has remained largely ignored by constitutional studies and democracy scholars. This book addresses this gap and presents a contribution to the South Asia-centric literature on the topic of the stability and resilience of constitutional democracies. Chapters deal not only with relatively well known South Asian countries such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, but also with countries often ignored by scholars, such as Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, and Afghanistan. The contributions consider the design and functioning of an array of institutions and actors, including political parties, legislatures, the political executive, the bureaucracy, courts, fourth branch / guarantor institutions (such as electoral commissions), the people, and the military to examine their roles in strengthening or undermining constitutional democracy across South Asia. Each chapter offers a contextual and jurisdictionally-tethered account of the causes behind the erosion of constitutional democracy, and some examine the resilience of constitutional institutions against democratic erosion.

Contents:

Part I Constitutional resilience decoded Constitutional resilience in South Asia : a primer / Swati Jhaveri, Tarunabh Khaitan, and Dinesha Samaratne

Part II Constitutional design Institutional resilience and political transitions in Sri Lanka and beyond / Dian A.H. Shah and Mario Gomez

Old powers and new forces in the Bhutanese constitution : anticipating the resilience of a young constitution / Mihaela Windischgraetz

Part III Federalism Territorial dynamics in Sri Lanka : federalism, unitarism, and path dependence / Jayani Nadarajalingam and Zim Nwokora

Proposing a solidarity-based (federal) solution for Sri Lanka / Erika Arban

The constitutional resilience of human rights in new federal states : local government and the National Human Rights Commission in Nepal / Hari P. Dhungana and Iain Payne

Part IV The political branches Killing a constitution with a thousand cuts : executive aggrandisement and party-state fusion in India / Tarunabh Khaitan

Dysfunction and ad hocism in agenda setting : compromising of the Lok Sabha in India / Devendra Damle and Shubho Roy

Dysfunctional resilience in the Afghan civil service / Ebrahim Afsah

Part V The judiciary The Maldives : a parable of judicial crisis, institutional corrosion, and democratic demise / Ahmed Nazeer

Judicial evasion, judicial vagueness, and judicial revisionism : a study of the NCT of Delhi v. Union of India Judgment(s) / Gautam Bhatia

Part VI Fourth branch (guarantor) institutions Sri Lanka's guarantor branch : constitutional resilience by stealth? / Dinesha Samaratne

The South Asian fourth branch : designing election commissions for constitutional resilience / Michael Pal

Between trust and democracy : the Election Commission of India and the question of constitutional accountability / M. Mohsin Alam Bhat

The turbulent journey and overlooked opportunities of electoral democracy in Bangladesh / Muhammad Omar Faruque

Part VII The military Rescuing the agency and resilience of civilian political actors : civil-military relations in Pakistan, 2008-20 / Farhan Hanif Siddiqi

A frozen democratic transition : Pakistan's hybrid regime and weak party system / Muhammad Salman and Marzia Raza

Part VIII The people Rethinking constitutional resilience from below : Dalit rights and land reform / Faizan Jawed Siddiqi

Constitutional patriotism in India : appreciating the people as constitutional actors / Jahnavi Sindhu and Vikram Aditya Narayan

Part IX Conclusion Epilogue : resilience and political constitutionalism in South Asia and beyond / Philipp Dann.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Khaitan, Tarunabh Constitutional Resilience in South Asia

ISBN:

9781509948871

OCLC:

1380466073