How the powerless won

New leaders have leveraged poor governance, public discontent, economic hardship and anger against established elites.

The people of Nepal delivered an unprecedented judgment in the elections two weeks ago. The ‘youthquake’ is triggering not only a change of government but also a fresh assessment of the very functioning of political parties and their relationship with the people. Within political parties, we are seeing a significant level of power shift. How did the powerless people in Nepal become so powerful as to effect these fundamental changes? One is reminded here of the seminal essay, The Power of the Powerless , by Vaclav Havel, an acclaimed writer and the first president of the Czech Republic. The 1978 essay was written in an entirely different context of power dynamics in Eastern European countries. But we can relate it to the outcomes of these elections in Nepal.