Rs 3,000
Although many parts of the world have not experienced democracy until recently, successive waves of democratization throughout the 20th century have meant that more countries have now adopted the democratic form of Government in opposition to non-democratic ones. That is why the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) argues that democracy has now become the predominant form of Government in the world today. Pakistan has been subject to military rule for major part of its life since the country’s independence in 1947. However, more recently, democratic form of Government has started to take root with the continuation of two successive democratic regimes since 2008. Therefore, considering the novelty of the phenomenon, it becomes important to take stock of the quality of democracy in the country and to assess its growth or decay. PILDAT has been doing the very same with its successive, yearly assessments of the quality of democracy in Pakistan since 2002. In order to facilitate a comparison of the indigenous assessment of quality of democracy with other such assessments around the world, PILDAT has used the State of Democracy (SoD) framework, developed by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, which has been adopted in other countries as well. In this publication, Mr. Andrew Ellis, who has years of experience in assessing the quality of democracy and of working with International IDEA, dilates upon the various aspects of the assessment of the quality of democracy in Pakistan, as carried out by PILDAT, through the use of the SoD framework. Along with outlining the key features of an effective assessment of the quality of democracy and the SoD framework, he highlights some of the major points of the democracy assessment in Pakistan along with gauging the impact such an assessment has had in the country. This also includes the results that the SoD framework has garnered over the years along with comments on the future of the assessment in Pakistan.
