The end of liberal politics

Liberal means the rule of law (Rule of Law) i.e. the use by the state with certain limits or the rule-authority which is accepted by the majority of people. A democracy has an elected president or prime minister and a cabinet. There is an elected House of Representatives or Rajya Sabha or unicameral or bicameral parliament. A democracy has free communication media (mass media). There are free citizens who vote. There is an independent judiciary that administers justice without discrimination. However, this alone cannot make a democratic system complete. For a developed democracy, ease of livelihood for the common man is an essential condition. Universally recognized rights such as universal and quality education, guaranteeing health are mandatory. The standard of democracy is considered strong only when there is access to infrastructure such as housing, public information, easy and accessible public transport, electricity and drinking water. In order to establish such rights and rights in an underdeveloped country like ours, it is mandatory to establish the access of common people to the production and distribution of the country. This means that it is necessary to motivate the spontaneous participation of the people in the overall development of the country. Democracy does not only look at the interests of the elite. It is believed that democracy is the certainty of access to the livelihood and overall development of the common people. So democracy is not a collection of formulas, it is a political work. And, political work is guided by a certain philosophy.

The latest definition of liberal democracy as understood by the average person is becoming narrower worldwide. If you look carefully even in the countries where the system adopted by you and your country is the biggest democracy, yesterday it seems that the definition of democracy as understood by the common people there is shrinking. In fact, why did liberal democracy shrink globally in competition between liberals and, in a sense, elites? And what alternatives will emerge in the near future? This article focuses on how it is necessary to change the commentary on democracy in Nepal.

liberal democracy and its discontents

After the financial crisis of 2008/09 and the global recession that has deepened since 2010, news has emerged of liberalism's rapid decline. Professor Roberto Fova of the University of Melbourne and Yascha Maunk, a lecturer at Harvard University, seem to have made the first attempt to examine the popularity of this theoretical system in the days after neoliberal marketism engulfed the liberalism of the 1980s. An article on how people's dissatisfaction with democracy is increasing, published by the University of Melbourne, was published in the "Journal of Democracy" published in 2016 based on a survey conducted by them in the United States, Poland and Hungary in Europe and Venezuela in Latin America.

In the article, they said that despite the right to write, speak, and organize in those countries, the popularity of democracy is rapidly declining. Based on the data from the survey conducted by them, he mentioned that the beginning of the process of collapse (deconsolidation) started with the dissolution of democratic institutions including the party. Citing Venezuela, they wrote, in 1980 there was a two-party system, the measure of independence and political status were remarkably good, but in 1995, according to a survey by an organization called Latino Barometer, 46 percent of Venezuelans said that the existing democracy could not solve the country's current problems. pointed out and 81 percent respondents said that only a strong leader (strongman) would solve the problem. In the 1998 elections, Hugo Chávez was elected president under the guise of left-wing populism. Another of these stories was echoed among the populists of the extreme right wing. Like - Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, Victor Orwan in Hungary, Lek Kaszynski in Poland, Vladimir Putin in Russia, Narendra Modi in India, Donald Trump in America and Bolsonaro in Brazil.

Currently, the populism of right-wing extremists seems to be dominating in the countries of Europe, Asia, Africa and America. In the elections held in Asian and Euro-Asian countries like Indonesia, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Russia, autocratic dictatorships came to power in the name of alleged nationalism. According to a survey conducted in Germany, 20 percent of people said that a single strong party should be in power, while in France, the number of those who say the same is said to be around 40 percent. Andrew Turnson, 'Liberal Democracy: Why We May Be Losing It' University of Melbourne).

After the first mass movement of 2046, the Nepali Congress Party came to power. He declared himself the messiah of liberal democratic socialism. After the 2048 general election, as the majority party, after the formation of the government, it came to fully support the neoliberal market. After he ascended to power, he intensified the propaganda that liberal capitalism is necessary to give stable governance in Nepal, stability cannot be achieved by other governance systems, democracy cannot be established, individual rights cannot be protected, and individual rights over property cannot be protected. CPN (UML) could not remain influenced by this propaganda during the period of the fall of the Soviet Union and the demise of Eastern European socialism. As a result, by using the brand name of the Communist Party, he got to assimilate neoliberal capitalism in political and organizational programmatic terms with a little public welfare jalap. The Maoist who fought a ten-year people's war of 2052-62 has been continuously participating in power since 2006 and has been following the policies of Congress and UML.

In the parliamentary journey from 2046 to 2080, the 3-decade-long journey has been completed even if 2-2 years are allocated as a transitional period. But this parliamentary neoliberal democratic practice did not transform the society. As such, public education has become highly substandard and unreliable. Although the private sector flourished in the business of education for two and a half decades, it has now suffered a recession due to unreliability and Nepali education as a whole has fallen into a systemic crisis. Health has proved to be very expensive for common people. Distrust of local public education is intensifying. Even if we look at the government data, the unemployment rate is 11 percent. Be it the private or public sector, no one has been able to show signs of generating employment to keep the youth in the country.

According to the government data, the production in agriculture, industry, forestry, tourism and other productive sectors is 10 times less than the country's needs due to high trade deficit (10 trillion exports while 10 trillion exports, Kantipur Dainik, Chait 6, 2080). Agricultural workers are in the Gulf and Malaysia to sell manual labour. Industrial producers engage in international goods and domestic services trade to earn huge profits. It is not unusual for the economy to go into a coma due to the Dutch-disease (the disease of not being able to produce any goods and services in sufficient quantities) when the state itself does not prioritize enterprise and production. The price of essential consumables including food, clothing, public transport is continuously increasing rapidly. The real incomes of the majority of workers have fallen. The people of the families who are not in foreign jobs and government jobs, their lives have become miserable and there has been a sudden increase in inequality. The government, which is covering general expenses by taxing imported consumption, is now not only having to cover general expenses by increasing loans from home and abroad, but also has to bear the burden of interest by adding loans. The government has become unstable. Policies, programs, plans, have been photocopied and copy-pasted for decades. Looking at the minimum policy and common resolution announced by the government called the new coalition, it seems like 'Kamkura Ekatir, Kumlo Boki Thimtir'. Let alone

veterans, the general feeling can be summed up like this. (1) Economic activity in the country is continuously increasing. (2) Corruption of the state has grown exponentially and there is massive revenue leakage. (3) Let's leave the matter of direct foreign investment in reality, instead of investing a large part of the income earned in Nepal or through foreign employment in Nepal, it is known from various revelations that capital has been diverted to offshore Iceland and rich countries with the connivance of white-post employees, big leaders and businessmen. is All these developments are increasing resentment towards big political parties and their leaders-activists.

party privatization

Discussion of ideas or desire for change attracts people to political theory. While discussing ideas, the party is invented with the consent of like-minded friends. How a blueprint for change is made determines what a political party will be. Most liberal capitalist parties tend to build a loose organization based on public opinion (mass-based) and it is customary for a popular figure elected by the general membership to lead the party. In the Westminster system, if the credibility of the party falls just a little or if the party has to suffer a small defeat in the electoral system, it is customary for the leader to give way to other friends through the party conference. Communist or socialist parties are considered cadre based. According to the organizational principle of democratic centralism, the party believes in collective leadership. Apart from special circumstances, the term of the leadership (general secretary or president) has also been observed in the recent period to have a provision not to exceed two terms i.e. 8 or 10 years. But in the recent period, whether it is a liberal democratic party or a communist socialist party, it seems that they are building the party in a dictatorial way to make themselves special by setting up a hierarchy. For that, they seize control of the party system and slowly insult their ideological opposition, and end politics itself, and instead of politicians, they bring in unprincipled, opportunist people into the party. Gradually they seize the party power and come to dominate the politics of the nation.

Donald Trump took over the Republican Party in America. Before Jair Bolsonaro had no party in Brazil. He took over the Political Liberal Party of Conservatives. Like other right-wing parties, Hungary's Viktor Orbán, India's BJP's Narendra Modi and Poland's Jarosław Kaszyński have taken control of the parties. The main political parties of Nepal are not lacking in the art of maintaining their sole supremacy by capturing the party. Whether they are Communists or Congress, RPPA or RASWP, the character of all of them, old and new, is to capture the party first and then seize power. Because of this and similar leadership, not only the parties have failed, but they have pushed the nation towards failure. Recently, the nation is facing serious problems in liberal democracy when opportunists and businessmen took over the party and killed the power. Inequality has grown exponentially. Political corruption is about to touch the sky. Social tolerance and mutual harmony seem to be falling into the abyss. Trust in the government and the institutions it occupies has eroded, and the government seems incapable of monitoring, regulating and controlling almost anything. Now the overall election system is like 'we pretend to vote, they pretend to govern us'. This means that political parties are not the only ones being privatized. The globalization of society as a whole is happening at a rapid pace. Today, due to this depoliticization, one party does not look different from another party.