7.5 Federalism and State Restructuring

Why restructuring (the diagnosis): the unitary, Kathmandu-centred state — built from the unification era through the Panchayat decades (Nepali History Units 5) — was diagnosed (most authoritatively after the 1996–2006 conflict) as the institutional cause of exclusion: distance, monopoly, and one language-and-culture of power. Restructuring = moving the state to the people: federalism, inclusion, decentralisation — constitutionalised in 2015. The design (know the numbers cold): three tiers — federation, 7 provinces, 753 local governments (metropolitan, sub-metropolitan, municipal and rural municipal); elected assemblies and executives at every tier; local government with its own legislative, executive and (quasi-)judicial powers (the judicial committees — Unit 3.1's living-law story); powers divided by exclusive and concurrent lists; fiscal federalism — the Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission, revenue-sharing and equalisation grants. The balance-sheet (write both sides): • Delivered: democracy at the doorstep (ward offices issuing documents, running schools and health posts); the women's-representation surge (7.2); provincial assemblies and naming (Koshi, Madhesh, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini, Karnali, Sudurpashchim) giving the map political identity; planning and budgeting at three tiers. • Unfinished: provinces' weak own-revenue and thin staff (the long-delayed civil-service federalisation); centre-province turf wars; implementation-capacity gaps in new municipalities; the cost-of-politics critique; and inclusion's frontier — whether the provincial map answered Madhesh's and indigenous groups' boundary demands (7.3). Line: federalism in Nepal is an inclusion project under construction…