Mariam Mufti – författare

Pakistan’s 2018 general elections marked the second successful transfer of power from one elected civilian government to another—a remarkable achievement considering the country’s history of dictatorial rule. Pakistan’s Political Parties examines how the civilian side of the state’s current regime has survived the transition to democracy, providing critical insight into the evolution of political parties in Pakistan and their role in developing democracies in general.Pakistan’s numerous political parties span the ideological spectrum, as well as represent diverse regional, ethnic, and religious constituencies. The essays in this volume explore the way in which these parties both contend and work with Pakistan’s military-bureaucratic establishment to assert and expand their power. Researchers use interviews, surveys, data, and ethnography to illuminate the internal dynamics and motivations of these groups and the mechanisms through which they create policy and influence state and society.Pakistan’s Political Parties is a one-of-a-kind resource for diplomats, policymakers, journalists, and scholars searching for a comprehensive overview of Pakistan’s party system and its unlikely survival against an interventionist military, with insights that extend far beyond the region.

Pakistan’s 2018 general elections marked the second successful transfer of power from one elected civilian government to another—a remarkable achievement considering the country’s history of dictatorial rule. Pakistan’s Political Parties examines how the civilian side of the state’s current regime has survived the transition to democracy, providing critical insight into the evolution of political parties in Pakistan and their role in developing democracies in general.Pakistan’s numerous political parties span the ideological spectrum, as well as represent diverse regional, ethnic, and religious constituencies. The essays in this volume explore the way in which these parties both contend and work with Pakistan’s military-bureaucratic establishment to assert and expand their power. Researchers use interviews, surveys, data, and ethnography to illuminate the internal dynamics and motivations of these groups and the mechanisms through which they create policy and influence state and society.Pakistan’s Political Parties is a one-of-a-kind resource for diplomats, policymakers, journalists, and scholars searching for a comprehensive overview of Pakistan’s party system and its unlikely survival against an interventionist military, with insights that extend far beyond the region.

This book examines the “persistent instability” in Pakistan’s regime addressing how we understand the shifts in the combination of authoritarian and democratic tendencies, and why is it that the regime does not go beyond the threshold of a transitioning democracy. In doing so, it emphasizes the importance of how power is distributed within a regime, by assessing candidate recruitment and selection in Pakistan.The book builds on the structural approaches by K.B. Sayeed (1968), Jalal (1995) and Tudor (2013) on the origins of democracy in Pakistan by questioning why an unstable regime has persisted in Pakistan despite electoral turnover and the entry of new political players. It then goes on to propose that if one treats elite recruitment as the independent variable explaining political regimes, the strategies employed by the elite to access power and perpetuate themselves in power explains why these elite do not have the incentive to move towards democracy, choosing instead a hybrid political system.  Building on original field research conducted in Pakistan from 2008 to 2016, including 191 semi-structured interviews with politicians, bureaucrats, retired military officials, policy-makers and journalists, research in the book is also informed by focus groups conducted with party workers and activists, and thorough archival research of newspapers, monthly magazines and special editions covering elections. The book also provides the most easily accessible electoral data of Pakistan’s National Assembly elections since 1988 in tabular form, data on electoral volatility, and rates of party-switching.