Ashwin Makhija

While local governments are at the forefront of the current Covid-19 crisis the world over, in Pakistan these institutions are largely disengaged from its citizens. Either there is a complete absence of a local authority in most of the districts or the governance style that it follows, wherever it marginally exists, is authoritative and reactive in nature. Whatever the case may be, the essential state-society social contract is being undermined, which may lead to marginalization, group grievances, and conflict and social resistance as put by the 'Covid-19 Pakistan Socio-economic Impact Assessment and Response Plan' released by the UNDP. The report goes on further to warn about the potential perils that perhaps the virus will wreck on the people: the impacts may reach deep into society and on the behavior of individual, and affect well-being and mental health. Against this likely scenario, a weak coordination mechanism and platform at the local level is already rendering relief ...

Without any doubt, democracy is backsliding in the country where it took birth. Many negative elements have taken on democracy in the United States of America. First and foremost, the hit has come from racial prejudice and physical torture of Black people. The latest horrific incident of policeman knelting on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, in the USA has provoked serious condemnation globally. This episode in itself is demonstrative of how Americans treat their counterparts who are in minority. Similarly, Trump has expressed his propensity for authoritarian tendencies. Whether at home or abroad he has supported despotic moves, and favored authoritarianism over democracy. His whims and fancies have cost his nation and the world dearly. Even more, his disdain for multiculturalism and the essence of cooperation is driving the anarchy deeper into the framework of global politics. It might not be so far from now when the whole planet would embrace individualism and autocracy at the ...