Process Of Democratization: A Critical Analysis

“Critically analyze the role of Third Druk Gyalpo Jigme Dorji Wangchuck in the process of Democratization.”

The former Prime Minister of British, Sir Winston Churchill said, “Until today, no other form of government has been invented that could regulate public affairs better than Democracy.” This indeed is true as the majority of the countries in the world are in favor of this ideology. Bhutan is no exception. Bhutan, on 18th July 2008, saw a political transformation from hereditary monarchy to constitutional Democracy. The framework of a democratic political transformation dates back to the time of the third King, Jigme Dorji Wangchuk. His wide range of thinking and the exposure to outside world brought about the noble approach towards

According to Phuntsho, (2013, p.567), the royal advisory council, which consisted of eight members, will serve as the body of the review to the king and the government. This means, the people will have the power to watch and recommend on the work done by the king and the government. In case, the works of government fail to achieve the set goal, the body will advise. It is clear from the above line that the royal power is shared equally with his subjects in administrating the functioning of the government. Moreover, the king, in 1965, removed the royal power (Phuntsho, 2013, p.567). This clearly shows the king’s strife to create good government in the country where the members of the body will decide on the agendas without his approval. One of the key elements of Democracy is good governance where most of the time the focus is given on the public affair and absences of corruption. This, without any doubt, was achieved by the third king. His decision of decentralizing the power, in such matter, is to give the people the feeling of fair and justices. Furthermore, such action upholds the fundamental duty to act in aid of law. It ensured the justice and tranquility which is the aim of forming constitutional Democracy in the countries. Therefore, the political transformation after the third king was a success as the foundation for such transformation was laid ahead of the third

In the past, the power was centralized. But this was to gain full control over the country to stabilize. Therefore, it gave rise to Monarchy from the religious Republicans, which existed during Zhabdrung theocracy (Gallenkamp, 2010, p.6). Taking this into account, it is clear that the pinnacle level of all the power vested in the court of rulers. Moreover, there was no concrete structure of the judicial system. This infringed people’s right to an opinion and speech. The justice was passed by the king himself on the severity of the crime committed. All the laws adhere to the code of conduct enacted by Zhabdrung in the 17th century. Form this, it is understood that without any codification of law, the justice passed may be inefficient as even in the current court of law, with the codified laws, the justice passed is inefficient. The third king felt the need of the judiciary system to implement the laws after establishing Tshogdu for legislating and Lhengye Zhungtshog for executing. Therefore, in 1967 High Court was established (Phuntsho, 2013, p.567). The establishment of High court gave systemic functioning of the government where all the people shared the equal power for valid justices. This is where the people saw the codified law which served them justice. Furthermore, this initiative enhanced the unity,