Absent MPs: A growing concern for democracy

In the villages and bazaars of Nepal, democracy is often felt not in grand constitutional words but in the simple experience of citizens asking, "Where is our MP?" This question, arising from the noticeable absence of elected representatives, highlights a growing concern for the health of democracy. When MPs are not present, citizens lose a crucial bridge to power, and their absence becomes a political event in itself.

The article argues that when Parliament is sidelined, representatives are cut off from their constituents, and decision-making becomes opaque, a constitutional crisis becomes an everyday reality for citizens. Democracy, it suggests, is understood less from the preamble of the constitution and more from the ordinary citizen's experience of having their voice heard and their fears addressed by the government.

This crisis is not unique to Nepal. Globally, elected governments, once in power, often struggle with limits, questions, and the future. Limits remind them of their accountability, questions challenge their assumptions, and the future underscores that their power is not absolute. Authoritarian governments reject all limits, but democracies require elected officials to be accountable to the constitution, judiciary, parliament, press, and civil society.

The piece critiques what it calls a "dopamine government", one that relies on immediate achievements and popular excitement for political self-confidence. Such governments can treat a popular mandate as a certificate of freedom from accountability. The intoxication of electoral success can lead them to believe that popularity equals morality, majority equals truth, and electoral victory grants authority over all institutions. This dynamic erodes the fundamental principles of democratic governance, where elected officials must remain answerable to the people they represent.