The Nexus of Kleptocratic Bureaucratic Regime and Democratic Backsliding – Insights from Pakistan

The paper examines the nexus of a "Kleptocratic Bureaucratic Regime" with democratic backsliding in Pakistan, using the case study of the 2024 general elections. Various studies have explored the role of bureaucracy in democratic backsliding. These studies range from investigations into authoritarian governments transforming bureaucratic roles (Bauer, 2023; Lewandowsky, 2022; Bauer & Becker, 2020; Isaac, 2019), to the responses of street-level bureaucrats to authoritarianism (Piotrowska, 2024), and arguments for bureaucratic resistance during democratic backsliding (Bauer, 2023). Collectively, these studies enhance our understanding of public service's role in democratic backsliding. However, they often overlook administrative traditions, cultural, economic, ideological, colonial, and other contextual factors influencing bureaucratic nature and function.

Understanding these factors is crucial, as bureaucratic operations are shaped by them. Thus, this study employs the concept of a "bureaucratic regime" to analyze the bureaucracy's role in Pakistan's democratic backsliding. A bureaucratic regime refers to a governance system defined by rules, institutions, norms, values, culture, traditions, ideas, and interests shaping bureaucratic functions and policy outcomes collectively. The regime concept implies path dependency (David, 2007), where past events constrain decision-making, fostering a predictable governance approach.

This study focuses on the Pakistan Administrative Service as a Kleptocratic Bureaucratic Regime, prioritizing personal interests over public welfare, perpetuating extractive practices, nepotism, corruption, and resisting reform, leading to subpar policy outcomes. Specifically, it examines how this regime interacts with democratic backsliding in Pakistan, using the 2024 general elections as a case study. During these elections, officers of the Pakistan Administrative Service oversaw both election conduct and result compilation. Post-election, significant complaints emerged regarding election rigging and manipulated results favouring the military-backed political parties to win electoral majority.

The study concludes that Kleptocratic Bureaucratic Regimes increase the risk and exacerbate democratic backsliding. By proposing a framework that examines the interplay between bureaucratic regimes and democratic backsliding, this research makes a valuable contribution to the literature on understanding the underlying causes of democratic erosion within the field of public administration.