Democratic Culture in Pakistan: An Historical Overview

Abstract

Pakistan has been a victim of dictatorship for various times due to a number of reasons. The democratic governments have been toppled down by military rulers on the charges of corruption and inefficacy of politicians to deliver their services. It was the leg-pulling of politicians and bad political opposition as well which overthrew the elected regimes of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif thrice on the same grounds. Due to the malpractices of governance, democratic culture has not been provided an environment to be deep rooted in society. Democracy has attained serious attention in Pakistan after independence but in ‘theory’ not in ‘practical’ form. This paper discusses and analyzes here various reasons of weak democracy in Pakistan's political history. It concludes that lack of political socialization, which is the root of democratization, the individual behaviour does not match to democracy. A descriptive-analytical approach based on literature review, qualitative method has been used for research.