Constitutional Resilience in South Asia

Foreword
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
List of Contributors
PART I: CONSTITUTIONAL RESILIENCE DECODED
	1. Constitutional Resilience in South Asia: A Primer
		I. Introduction
		II. Pathologies in Comparative Constitutional Studies
		III. A Proto-comparative Approach
		IV. Diagnosing Constitutional Decay in South Asia – Mapping the Terrain
		V. Furthering the Field of Study
PART II: CONSTITUTIONAL DESIGN
	2. Institutional Resilience and Political Transitions in Sri Lanka and Beyond
		I. Introduction
		II. Political Change and Institutional Reforms
		III. Evolution and Implications of Reforms
		IV. Political Culture and Lessons on Institutional Resilience
		V. Conclusion: The Twentieth Amendment, Constitutional Realities and the Road Ahead
	3. Old Powers and New Forces in the Bhutanese Constitution – Anticipating the Resilience of a Young Constitution
		I. Introduction
		II. The Vision of the Constitution
		III. Old Powers and New Forces
		IV. Conclusion
PART III: FEDERALISM
	4. Territorial Dynamics in Sri Lanka: Federalism, Unitarism and Path Dependence
		I. Introduction
		II. Path Dependence of Institutions
		III. Unitarism in Sri Lanka: Why it is Stable
		IV. The Possibility of Federalism: A Viable Pathway
		V. The Limits of Functional Federalism in Sri Lanka
	5. Proposing a Solidarity-Based (Federal) Solution for Sri Lanka
		I. Introduction
		II. The Current Constitutional Context in Sri Lanka
		III. The Thirteenth Amendment and Devolution
		IV. The Meaning of Solidarity
		V. Entrenching Solidarity in the Sri Lankan Constitutional Discourse
		VI. Conclusion
	6. The Constitutional Resilience of Human Rights in New Federal States: Local Government and the National Human Rights Commission in Nepal
		I. Introduction
		II. The Fourth Branch and Federal States
		III. Human Rights in Post-conflict Nepal
		IV. Local Government: An Important All-Weather Rights Actor
		V. Challenges to Human Rights Implementation at the Local Level: Accountability and Capacity
		VI. The National Human Rights Commission: Guaranteeing Rights Across All Levels of the Federation
		VII. Conclusion and Recommendations
PART IV: THE POLITICAL BRANCHES
	7. Killing a Constitution with a Thousand Cuts: Executive Aggrandisement and Party-State Fusion in India
		I. Introduction
		II. Mechanisms for Executive Accountability
		III. Attacks on Electoral Accountability
		IV. Erosion of Institutional Accountability I: Containing the Opposition
		V. Erosion of Institutional Accountability II: Capturing or Undermining the Judiciary and Fourth Branch Institutions
		VI. Silencing Discursive Accountability Mechanisms
		VII. Conclusion
	8. Dysfunction and Ad Hocism in Agenda Setting: Compromising of the Lok Sabha in India
		I. Introduction
		II. Agenda Setting in the Lok Sabha
		III. Analysing Agenda Setting in Practice: Methodology
		IV. Analysing Agenda Setting in Practice: Unpredictability and Dysfunction in the Agenda-Setting Process
		V. Conclusion
	9. Dysfunctional Resilience in the Afghan Civil Service
		I. Introduction
		II. Reform and the Reality of Governance
		III. Failed States can be Surprisingly Resilient
		IV. Troubled Memories
		V. Cherished Continuities and Reasonable Resistance
		VI. Conclusion
PART V: THE JUDICIARY
	10. The Maldives: A Parable of Judicial Crisis, Institutional Corrosion and Democratic Demise
		I. Introduction
		II. Impact of Constitutional Design on Democratic Decay and Breakdown
		III. Effects of Politicisation of the Judiciary: Judicial Overreach and Disruption of Constitutional Institutions
		IV. The Road to Resilience: A Proposal for the Constitutional Reform of the Judiciary
	11. Judicial Evasion, Judicial Vagueness and Judicial Revisionism: A Study of the NCT of Delhi v Union of India Judgment(s)
		I. Introduction
		II. Laying Down the Principles: The Five Judge Bench
		III. Applying the Principles: The Two-Judge Bench
		IV. Judicial Evasion, Judicial Vagueness and Judicial Revisionism
		V. Conclusion
PART VI: FOURTH BRANCH (GUARANTOR) INSTITUTIONS
	12. Sri Lanka\'s Guarantor Branch: Constitutional Resilience by Stealth?
		I. Introduction
		II. The Guarantor Branch, Constitutional Resilience and Vulnerability
		III. Sri Lanka\'s Guarantor Branch: Constitutional Innovation
		IV. Threats and Constitutional Vulnerabilities
		V. Resilience by Stealth?
		VI. Conclusion
	13. The South Asian Fourth Branch: Designing Election Commissions for Constitutional Resilience
		I. Introduction
		II. Constitutional Resilience and Election Commissions
		III. The South Asian \'Fourth Branch\'
		IV. The Challenges to the South Asian Model
		V. Conclusion
	14. Between Trust and Democracy: The Election Commission of India and the Question of Constitutional Accountability
		I. Introduction
		II. Jurisprudence of Deference
		III. Democracy and Distrust
		IV. Trust and Accountability
		V. Trust Over Democracy
		VI. Conclusion: The Challenge of Operational Accountability
	15. The Turbulent Journey and Overlooked Opportunities of Electoral Democracy in Bangladesh
		I. Introduction
		II. Mandate of the Election Commission: A Toothless Tiger?
		III. Dereliction of the Election Commission and the Emergence of the Non-party Caretaker Government
		IV. The Thirteenth Amendment Judgment: An Assessment from the Perspective of Consolidation of Electoral Democracy
		V. Conclusion
PART VII: THE MILITARY
	16. Rescuing the Agency and Resilience of Civilian Political Actors: Civil-Military Relations in Pakistan, 2008–20
		I. Introduction
		II. The Existing Narrative on Military Dominance in Pakistan
		III. Mainstreaming the Agency of Political Elites
		IV. Conclusion
	17. A Frozen Democratic Transition: Pakistan\'s Hybrid Regime and Weak Party System
		I. Introduction
		II. Pakistan as a \'Hybrid\' Regime
		III. Pakistan\'s Political Parties: Flaws and Struggles
		IV. Inconsistency, Centralised Decision-Making and Weak Accountability in Political Parties
		V. Conclusion: Political Expediency, Weak Party System Institutionalisation and Regime Hybridity
PART VIII: THE PEOPLE
	18. Rethinking Constitutional Resilience from Below: Dalit Rights and Land Reform
		I. Introduction
		II. Constitutional Performance Reconsidered
		III. Dalit Mobilisation and Land Reform in Surendranagar
		IV. Law and Navsarjan\'s Efficacy: Politics in the \'Shadow of Law\'
		V. Rethinking Constitutional Resilience
	19. Constitutional Patriotism in India: Appreciating the People as Constitutional Actors
		I. Introduction
		II. Beyond Institutions – People as Constitutional Actors
		III. Constitutional Patriotism
		IV. India as a Site of Constitutional Patriotism
		V. Indian Constitutional Patriotism as a Tool of Constitutional Resilience
		VI. Conclusion
PART IX: CONCLUSION
	20. Epilogue: Resilience and Political Constitutionalism in South Asia and Beyond
		I. Foreword to the Epilogue
		II. Introduction
		III. South Asia and the Question of Case Selection
		IV. Constitutional Resilience and the Diversity of Challenges
		V. \'Beyond Courts\' – or Political Constitutionalism and the Paths to Resilience
		VI. Conclusion and Some Desiderata for Future Research
Index