Living on the Margins. Minorities in South Asia - EURAC

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i In four months from January 15 to May 14, 2007, 561 mobile teams distributed 2,615,615 citizenship
certificates. Data obtained from Citizenship Section, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of Nepal.
ii The Dalit and indigenous nationalities are around 15 and 37 percent of the population respectively, the
Madhesi 18 to 32 percent if you add the Tarai’s Dalit, indigenous nationalities and. Muslims to the category of
Madhes. Collectively the marginalized groups are more than two-third of the population (Bhattachan 2003a).
iii This section draws on Lawoti (2007b).
iv Table 1 shows the two largest political parties would have received lesser seats under PR in all three
parliamentary elections after 1990. The rest of the parties would have received more seats in 90 percent of cases
under a PR system.
v Later opinion polls (Nepali Times 2002) have shown that the people began to blame the Maoists for the crises
in the country. The attitude change came after the Maoists began destruction of development infrastructures,
such as schools, health posts, telephone transmission towers, and VDC offices. On October, 2003 Prachanda,
the supreme Maoist leader, issued a statement saying that the politburo meeting of the party decided to stop the
destruction of development infrastructures. The destruction, however, did not completely stop.
vi For reasons not clear to the author, Sharma does not provide calculation of distribution of ethnic groups in
regions. In a model for federalism, that should have been the main task.
vii Interviews with activists and journalists in summer 2008 and documents provided by them.
viii In a parliamentary system, the executive will represent the Lower House’s interest as it is elected from it.
ix Following Schmitter (1982), Lijphart identifies (1999, 172) democratic corporatism with an interest group
system where “(1) interest groups are relatively large in size and relatively small in numbers, and (2) they are
further consolidated in national peak organizations…(3) regular consultation by the leaders of these peak
organizations, especially those representing labor and management, both with each other and with government
representatives to (4) arrive at comprehensive agreements that are binding on all three partners in the
negotiations.”
x Corporatist mechanisms have been employed by non-democratic regime to broaden support and legitimize their
rule, for example in Latin America. In Nepal the Panchayat system also mobilized workers, peasants, women,
and youth etc. to broaden support base. This history might make democrats a bit wary of corporatism. However,
as the non-English speaking European democracies have demonstrated, corporatism can become an effective
mechanism in reducing inequality and extending welfare and social justice in democracies. Corporatism in
autocracy could be problematic as it lengthened the regime’s rule while it is desirable in democracies because it
facilitates representation of lower classes in governance.
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