Beyond finding answers to who exercises power and how, what makes the political analysis of developing countries interesting is the attempt to understand how those in power increase their capacity to bring about change, how they respond to the demands of change, and how they cope with the social conflicts that inevitably emerge from societal change.
The present House of Representatives, the second after the restoration of democracy in Nepal in 1990, has seen practically every political permutation and combination in government formation. The ruling combination – some legal experts refute the claim that it´s a coalition of the Nepali Congress and a breakaway faction of Communist Party of Nepal sporting the suffix of ´M-L – enjoys the silent support of a splinter group of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party and together commands a comfortable majority in the House. Theoretically, therefore, the government does not lack the power to introduce change.
However, despite this unquestioned legitimacy to rule, the government has been floundering in a swamp of indecision. It was browbeaten by the business community when its proposal to implement a Value Added Tax was diluted into a parody. Even the one success that the government had been gloating about, police actions against the Maoists under the widely-known code ´Kilo Sierra Two´, seems to have come unstuck as the latter struck back with their "Base Area Preparation Operation" in late October, catching the government unawares. Everybody knows there is a government in the country but nobody is ready to accept that it works.
A government not seen to be working is seldom obeyed. A secretary to the government publicly challenges his departmental minister and gets away with it. Adulterators of mustard oil, when caught in the act, demand their spurious product back and get it. Glorified clerks in the donor agencies, not content with dictating terms, start meddling in the day-today administration of projects. Friendly countries deliberately delay, and sometimes even refuse, to send routine agreemos for publiclyannounced ambassadorial nominees.