State, Military and Social Transition: Improbable Future of Democracy in Pakistan*

Abstract

It is because social groups and classes, who have the most to gain from establishing democratic institutions in Pakistan, already have access to the state and to the nexus of power, that they have little need for ‘messy’ democracy, participation and accountability. Pakistan may be increasingly dominated by urban middle class factions and groups and has an ‘urban, modern, feel to it’. Unlike other countries where the rising urban middle classes have struggled for collective social emancipation and democracy, Pakistan's middle classes, as this paper argues, have preferred to become partners of authoritarian and military governments. Moreover, Pakistan's experiment with democracy in the 1990s was one that was controlled and dominated by the military; thus, the idea of democracy itself has found few enthusiasts in Pakistan.