Over-burdened Society, Over-politicised State: Understanding Pakistan’s Struggles with Governance

Abstract

Abstract Beset by serious governance problems, Pakistan is often called a failed state. Using the concepts of state-in-society, burdened societies and over-politicised states, this article argues that the nature of a society’s social and political structures, such as social inequality and ethnic divisions, determines the quality of governance institutions that can emerge within it at any given time. These structures emerge from the country’s pre-independence socio-political inheritances and then evolve under the influence of subsequent external and internal factors. In order to analyse a country’s future governance prospects and socio-economic trajectory, one must study the trajectory of these societal structures. Using this framework, the article concludes that while doomsday predictions about Pakistan’s collapse or take-over by religious extremists are inaccurate, it suffers from serious socio-economic problems, which will only resolve gradually if its societal structures evolve over the years in a positive direction.