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Abstract
In the course of Pakistan's sixty-three years of existence it has been called “a failed state,” occasionally “a failing state,” and even at times “a rogue state.” Perhaps this is a trend in contemporary comparative politics to label and characterize third world countries with such epithets. This article argues against these assertions, and I contend that Pakistan is a “struggling nation-state.” This article aims to outline a concise definition of a struggling state. My primary objective in this article is to emphasize the temporal and directional aspects of a struggling state, particularly in the case of Pakistan—which is a nation still in transition. It is a state still in its infancy (in some measures), effectively striving to attain stability in the face of aggression from within the confines of its borders, as well as outside its perimeters.
Historically Pakistan's democratic trajectory has been inefficacious, but more recently political institutions are gaining a strong foothold, specifically the unwavering judicial branch of the country with its self-assertive chief justice and, most importantly, public awareness and support in regards to political matters. Independent judiciaries that can uphold the constitution against any form of coercion are positive indicators for a state that is in its developmental phase and striving to democratize. In Larry Diamond's analysis, constitutional government and the rule of law are foundational factors before democracy is instituted. Moreover, he contends that England and other European states had constitutional government and the rule of law prior to democratization.Footnote 1
Special thanks to the following people for their comments and guidance: Leonard Weinberg, M. Inayat Ansari, Drucilla Cornell, Eric David, Andrew Murphy, and Ghaidaa Hetou.
Notes
1. Larry Diamond, Developing Democracy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 4.
2. Address to the people in Chittagong, March 23, 1948.
3. Dennis Kux, The United States and Pakistan, 1947–2000: Disenchanted Allies (Washington, DC: W. Wilson, 2001), 2.
4. This point is highly contestable and argued that it was the Muslim landlords who feared the socialization/redistribution of their holdings in a united India after independence.
5. The Capital of British Raj, during the colonial era.
6. Kux, United States and Pakistan, 4.
7. A stable institute that is, ironically, the prime cause for the nation's instability.
8. Ahmed Rashid, Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Cental Asia (New York: Viking, 2008), x.
9. Here I am referring to John Rawls's “burdened societies”; this will be explained later in the paper. John Rawls, The Law of Peoples (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002).
10. David Held, “Introduction,” in Models of Democracy, 2nd ed. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), 1–10.
11. Selig S. Harrison, Paul H. Kreisberg, and Dennis Kux, eds., India and Pakistan: The First Fifty Years (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 45.
12. Najeeb Jan, “The Metacolonial State: Pakistan, the Deoband Ulama and the Biopolitics of Islam” (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2010), 55.
13. Hindustan's literal meaning is the “land of the Hindu's.” Since the partition, it is mainly used for India.
14. Ian Talbot, Pakistan: A Modern History (Lahore, Pakistan: Vanguard, 1999), 95.
15. Alejo Cabranes, “The Situation in Pakistan,” The Dartmouth Independent, January 24, 2008, http://www.dartmouthindependent.com/archives/2008/01/the-situation-i.html (accessed August 16, 2009).
16. Talbot, Pakistan, 95.
17. Ayesha Jalal, Democracy and Authoritarianism in South Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 23.
18. Hassan Abbas, Pakistan's Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America's War on Terror (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002), 17.
19. Ibid.
20. Tariq Ali, Pakistan: Military Rule or People's Power (New York: Morrow, 1970), 37.
21. Ibid.
22. Stephen Philips Cohen, The Idea of Pakistan (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2002), 7.
23. Abbas, Pakistan's Drift into Extremism, 19.
24. Ali, Pakistan, 59. See quote from Lenin.
25. Noman Omar, The Political Economy of Pakistan (London: KPI, 1988), 12.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid., 44.
29. Dennis Kux, Pakistan: Flawed Not Failed State (Washington, DC: Foreign Policy Association, 2001), 16.
30. Ayub Khan, Friends Not Masters (Karachi, Pakistan: Oxford University Press, 1967), 204.
31. Kux, Pakistan, 16.
32. Kux, United States and Pakistan, 17.
33. Ibid.
34. Ali, Pakistan.
35. Kux, Pakistan.
36. Ibid.
37. Ardeshir Cowasjee, “The Danger Within,” Dawn.com, February 15, 2009, http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/cowas.htm (accessed August 16, 2009).
38. Kux, Pakistan, 19.
39. Ibid.
40. Harrison, Kreisberg, and Kux, India and Pakistan, 49.
41. Ayesha Siddiqa, Military Inc. (London: Pluto Press, 2007), 84.
42. John Bray, “Pakistan at 50: A State in Decline?” International Affairs 73, no. 2 (1997): 315–331.
43. Jalal, Democracy and Authoritarianism, 107.
44. Zahid Hussain, Frontline Pakistan (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), 22.
45. Bray, “Pakistan at 50.”
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid.
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid.
50. Musharraf didn't allow the PPP or the PML–N to front their main representative—Bhutto or Sharif—thus effectively banning the two largest parties.
51. Bray, “Pakistan at 50.”
52. Rashid, Descent Into Chaos, 378.
53. International Crisis Group, “Pakistan Transition to Democracy,” Asia Report 40 (October 3, 2002), http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/asia/south-asia/pakistan/040-pakistan-transition-to-democracy.aspx (accessed October 15, 2009).
54. James Traub, “Can Pakistan be Governed?” New York Times on the Web, April 5, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/magazine/05zardari-t.html (accessed October 17, 2009).
55. International Crisis Group, “Statement on the Assassination of Pakistani Opposition Leader Benazir Bhutto” (December 27, 2007), http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/publication-type-media-releases/2007/statement-on-the-assassination-of-pakistani-oppositon-leader-benazir-bhutto.aspx (accessed October 15, 2009).
56. Ahmed Rashid, “Beyond Musharraf,” Washington Post, August 19, 2008.
57. Ibid.
58. Traub, “Can Pakistan be Governed?”
59. Ibid.
60. Ibid.
61. Ibid.
62. The use of the term “decent” refers to nonliberal societies.
63. Rawls, Law of Peoples, 90.
64. Max Weber, Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1946).
65. Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 3–4.
66. The Fund for Peace, Failed States Index FAQ, http://www.fundforpeace.org/web/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=102&Itemid=327 (accessed October 17, 2009).
67. International Crisis Group, “Somalia: To Move Beyond the Failed State” (December 23, 2008), http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/africa/horn-of-africa/somalia/147-somalia-to-move-beyond-the-failed-state.aspx (accessed October 15, 2009).
68. Thomas Hobbes, “Chapter XIII,” Leviathan (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 1994), 76.
69. Although the Zardari government is a democratically elected government, I still use the term semidemocracy because of the nondemocratic nature of the political parties and the selection process of the political representatives.
70. Harrison, Kreisberg, and Kux, India and Pakistan, 4.
71. Abbas, Pakistan's Drift into Extremism, 10.
72. Rashid, Descent Into Chaos, 39.
73. Ibid.
74. Nicolas Kristof, “In Pakistan, Shakespeare Was Wrong,” The New York Times, March 17, 2009.
75. Carlotta Gall, “Musharraf Sets Date for End of Emergency Rule,” The New York Times, November 30, 2007.
76. Ibid.
77. Robert Mackey, “Musharraf and Lincoln, in Their Own Words,” The New York Times, November 4, 2007.
78. Gall, “Musharraf Sets Date.”
79. Amir Wasim, “Coalition Giving Time to President,” Dawn.com, August 18, 2008, http://www.dawn.com/2008/08/18/top1.htm (accessed October 17, 2009).
80. Ahmed Hassan, “PM Says He Will Advise Zardari to End Punjab Standoff,” Dawn.com, March 12, 2009, http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/pm-says-he-will-advise-zardari-to-end-punjab-standoff (accessed October 17, 2009).
81. Traub, “Can Pakistan be Governed?”
82. Ibid.
83. “SC Suspends Presidential Orders Over Judges' Appointment,” Dawn.com, February 14, 2010, http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/18-lhc-chief-justice-elevated-as-supreme-court-judge-am-03 (accessed February 22, 2010).
84. Samuel Huntington, The Third Wave (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), 209.
85. Ibid.
86. “Pakistan Army Clash with Taliban,” BBC, November 4, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8341626.stm (accessed February 22, 2010).
87. Huntington, Third Wave, 243.
88. Jayshree Bajpria, “The ISI and Terrorism: Behind the Accusations,” Council on Foreign Relations, http://www.cfr.org/publication/11644/ (accessed February 22, 2010).
89. Hussain Haqqani, “History Repeats Itself in Pakistan,” Journal of Democracy 17, no. 4 (2006): 110–124.
90. David Held, Models of Democracy (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), 119.
91. Rawls, Law of Peoples, 7.
92. Diamond, Developing Democracy, 12.
93. Ibid.
94. Ibid.
95. Stephan Jay Gould, The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1981), 28.