Congratulation to all aspirant novel public service bearers!
STATE Building Processes from
Grassroots –Prof. Prem Sharma PhD, CDRD, TU
Atithi Dewobhawa:
Wel-come/Namaste
Eyes’re different

A state is created
for needs of life and
for the good life of
'man'.
 To Socrates and Plato 'man' included all human beings, even
women, even foreigners, even perhaps slaves (Doren, 1991, p.
44).
Bee house/hive
Lokanthali
State Buildings ???
London
Is this not
estate?
Yes, it is,
but not a
state
Empire State Building
Part I: An overarching of state
building process
 Theory and concept- different perspectives and assumptions.
State building describes the construction of functioning
state. Authoritarian or Democratic regime. The approaches
attributed to- Good governance, New Public Management
and Decentralization.
 Traces (origin of state) - family (primary social unit),
society, community, state, empire building or suprastate, beyond national boundary, as par UN or global
governance. It is difference from empire building.
Theories:
 The Divine origin theory
 The theory of Force (strong vs weak relationship)
 Patriarchal and matriarchal theories (family as nucleus of
state)
 The social contract theory (state of nature, i.e., pre-social or
pre-political) good logic in franchise
 Historical and evolutionary theory
The latter two theories bear better logic and accepted
universally. The rest just speculative or less convincing.
The
oriental
Empire:
 nomads settle down in fertile valleys and pasture lands, e.g.,
Ganges, Nile, Tigris, Yellow and Yang Tse Rivers. And began
to pasture, cultivate and commerce
 Babylonians and Egyptians, Sumerians (who exercised
election by secret ballot)
 Aryans practiced constitutional monarchy, bicameralism
with speaker and representative form of government
 Confucian doctrine- aims all eminence should be based
entirely on merit which based on learning. ShihHung-ti talks
about the principle of moral excellence. Entry into new
bureaucracy was supposed to be based on merit alone, except
for the highest posts
The Western Greek City-State:
 the Greek City is a true State in the modern sense because it
integrated political, economic, intellectual and moral life of
people
 States (oriental or western) provided law to their people, a
measure of peace and security against the violence of other
people
 Grass roots democracy means downward accountability for
the delivery of goods and services to the service seekers. 'all
politics is local' means overcoming the poverty and hunger.
 politically popular institutions at rural areas are selfgovernment by villagers. Even in China, democratic election,
democratic decision-making, democratic management and
democratic supervision are the major contents of village self–
government
Part II- State Building in Nepal
Some considerations on state buildings:
•Patriotic feeling and its penetration
•Unity and harmony among diversity
•Socio-cultural harmony- 4 jats 36 barna
•Access to equality and equity
•Rule of law
•Accountable governance
•Meaningful and effective people’s participation
•National identities, e.g., language, religion, culture,
ethnicity/casts, etc.
State Building in Nepal contd.
 Evolution of Nepali State building- pre-nation state
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(nomad)- Panchali/ Mannyajan Kachari/Panchayat.
Lichhabi dynasty exercised more autonomous and self
governance
All local problems (disputes and development activities)
were settled down by local Panchas.
"Panchayat" literally means "assembly" (ayat) of five
(panch) wise and respected elders chosen and accepted by
the local community. "Raj" means rule
Panchayat is a south Asian political system mainly in
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal
oldest system of local government in the Indian subcontinent. Contd.
 Malla loosed the powerful central authority and the
Mahasamants designed as local governor turned as
feudal lord and created 22 se and 24 bise principalities.
Malla centre regimes weak. Prithivi Narayan Shaha
unified them; then 35/36 local government units
functioned till 1962 as Gaunda Gosshara.
 It was ever first state restructure in state building in
Nepal. Badahakims were assigned to monitor and
collect the revenue from these local institutions.
 Mukhiyas and Jimmals were entrusted as grass root
governor with the right of malpot/tiro uthaune (land
revenue collection) and authorized to settle the local
disputes as well as perform development works
 Post the abortion of ever first parliamentary government in
Nepal (1961), king Mahendra restructured the 35 states into 14
zones, 75 districts, 13 Nagar panchayats and 3347 gaon
panchayats (1 Baishak 2018) and introduced partiless
panchayat system which lasted 30 years (1990)
 Series of dev. packages experimented/launched oneself and in
the cooperation (Block 1953), guidance and assistance of
donors and international development institutions. No new
indigenous system tried and institutionalized yet, except the
legacy of the panchayat paradigm and multiparty political
system, concept of five development region for regional
balance, now federalism is in test.
 Popular referendum 1980 as political reform, etc. Nepali people
could not convince and eventually overthrew the 2 hundred 38
years old monarchial institutions in 2006.
 However, popular participation in decision
making, especially in governance, has been
witnessed significant changes. Post 2006
has on set the federal republic dialogue of
new state restructure.
 A new constitution is in operation with
mass participation (601 members/approved
by 90% legislatures) of CA-II election. This
is the time and demand of the global
change/environment. Till date, as if, we are
in the state of state building. Let us see.
State and Social Relationship in Post 1990:
Democratic Regime
 A state is by the society and for the society
 Restarted multi party democracy in 1990 unleashed
pluralism each stakeholder began to assert their
sovereignty then professional, occupational citizen
formed their associations and began to bargain to job
security, guarantee of incentives and working facilities
 the trade unions and public service bureaucrats
indulged in partisan lobby and have tried to keep their
partisan identify. Now it has been trouble shooting in
each establishment to govern the non-gazette staffs to
streamline the daily service delivery.
 Unfortunate rather discrepancy. Internal management
or organization and management (O& M)poor and
ineffective machinery. .
Market (creating
opportunities for people)
Civil Society (mobilizing
popular participation)
State (creating favorable
political, legal,&
economic environment)
 CSOs have been proved inevitable
development partners/instrument to
carryout development activities across the
country.
 donors are convinced that better outcomes
can be expected from NGOs/CSOs rather
than from the Private sectors have new
mission and responsibility.
 International investment is anticipated.
 They have lessened the state burden or
downsized the state role
 They just need peace security and political
stability in the country
 absence of elected local body created burden some to

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public service providers.
They have dual responsibility, bureaucrats and peoples
representative and up-down accountability, i.e., This
void situation will not last long.
over the two decades, the degree of awareness has been
gone up.
The roles of media, CSOs and tools adopted by local
bodies, especially the LGCDP, LGAF (fading out) and
their local facilitator, i.e., social mobilizer have left
tremendous effect.
Provision of info cell and officer in DDC and
Municipality offices, practices of RTI by various NGOs
and public hearings, public and social audits have
further awarded the locals.
 Still paradoxes as elite capture, unnecessary
interferences of political parties and pork barrel
distribution of development budget are acute
anomalies and fiduciary risk. Besides, public
finance management (PFM) and public
expenditure management (PEM) need effective
tracking.
 The role of CIAA/NAC
 The high turn up (above 70% in CA II) and the
frequent shift of voting pattern (in urban areas)
indicate that there are quite growing awareness in
the general public and supply side is being
strengthening. The provision of participatory
planning system (8 plus 6 system= 14 steps) and
budgeting system have extra mobilized the
beneficiaries at the local level
 Formation (CAC) and (WCF) have mobilized the
general public in the local state affairs.
 Direct and indirect interventions and involvement of
development partners (DPs) in the local
development activities have intensely helped to
strengthen the capacity of the local government
institutions.
 So, the general public have capacity to claim and
bargain with the service providers.
 Each ward citizen forum consists of 25 members beside a
citizen awareness centre; so altogether there can be no less
than 225 individuals.
State and People Interface
 The State falls in supply side and the people in demand




side.
an opportunity to have discourse face to face. In the
past no existence of interface between these
institutions.
top-down development approach and paradigm,
imposed and more guided.
Now there is bottom up participatory approach as
stipulated in LSGA 1999.
Now it is almost vice-versa, though tendency of
centralization has not been over.
Legislaive
Social Organizations
Executive
Judiciary
stakeholders in Governance
Political Parties
Civil Society
Media
Private Sector
 Media, NGOs, CSOs, CBOs and private sector have gradually

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tracking the roles and responsibilities of governments. At
the center constitutional bodies, e.g., CIAA, Human Rights
Commissions and Women and Dalit Commission are active.
Their active and efficient role is highly desirous.
LGCDP and social mobilization, local governance
accountability mechanism (LGAF) adapted by MOFALD and
DPs financed institutions such as PRAN, CARTA, have
created forums for public interface between service
providers and receivers.
If beneficiaries are alert and aware, no development
(budget) goes to waste.
People's participation in project planning and budgeting,
compliance hearing and grievances redress and community
monitoring system has become effective tools.
less chance of fiduciary risk, political interventions or any
misuse or abuse of development budget.
 The claims of ethnic identity based federalism,
one Madesh one Pradesh and right to self
determinations lofty byproducts of untamed
demands.
 These voices are surfaced in the absence of
poor and ineffective decentralization practices
in the past, more than four decades
 Popular demand of mixed electoral system
cannot be overlooked at the aspirant
expectation of award citizens.
 But impractical in Nepal for the time being
 Huge number (122) participation of political
parties in CA II is challenge for authority.
 Beside the state there are lots of challenges
posed by the citizen. Still the process of state
building is going on.
Nepalese Constitution (2015) with Federalism
 Republic setting with secularism
 Federal system sans good home work
 7 states; 217 Municipalities 3,157
gaonpalikas
 The new constitution (Nepalko Sambidhan)
comprises: 35 parts, 308 clauses/articles and
9 annexes.
Queries, comments, questions, AOB
Welcome; otherwise Thanks
Bha
nsa
bho
?