7.5 Constitution of Nepal, 1962 (2019 BS)

The Panchayat constitution: partyless "guided democracy." The king supreme — source and interpreter of the constitution; a Raj Sabha, a Rastriya Panchayat of class-based panchas (nominated-and-indirectly-elected), no parties (their very existence unconstitutional), fundamental duties and directive principles without justiciable rights, courts subordinate in practice to the palace's will. Its arc: the 1979 student movement forcing the 1980 national referendum (reform versus multiparty democracy — the Panchayat retained, but the question had been asked), then the 1980s' creeping liberalisation and amendments. Thirty years of constitutionalism without democracy — a constitution that was the regime rather than a limit upon it.