In the lead-up to elections in Nepal on March 5, a research team led by the Pulte Institute traveled to Kathmandu for focus group discussions with members of Gen Z who participated in the protests that overthrew Nepal’s government last fall.
The focus groups, part of research funded by Notre Dame’s Democracy Initiative, were conducted in partnership with researchers from Kathmandu University. Keough School faculty Susan Ostermann, Madhav Joshi and Mohammad Rashidujjaman Rifat were joined by Pulte Institute research staff Shriniwas Gautam, Lila Khatiwada, Poulomi Gosh and the McKenna Center’s Amna Batool for the sessions.
To ensure candid and authentic discussion, the team trained and collaborated with Gen Z Nepalis to facilitate these focus groups in late February. While participants currently live in Kathmandu, many had relocated there from communities across Nepal. The focus groups were intended to hear from Gen Z directly about their thoughts on democracy, democratic quality and their role in it; the resulting conversations proved to be complex and wide-ranging.
Focus groups revealed that, despite the electoral dominance on March 5 of the party most closely allied with the younger generation, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), Gen Z is far from monolithic. Some believe party politics and the RSP are the way forward; others think the RSP will run into the same problems as other parties when it tries to govern. Some participants expressed love for the RSP prime ministerial candidate, Balen Shah, precisely because of his sometimes-combative style of leadership, while others worry, soberly and pragmatically, he may not be ready to handle diplomacy for a nation surrounded by India and China.
Researchers noted that, on the issue of democracy, Gen Z members rarely mentioned elections themselves, indicating a conviction that these would continue to be held. Instead, discussants spoke about freedom, rights, and, interestingly, responsibilities and duties. Participants recognized that they would have to hold the RSP accountable for its promises, and some were already involving themselves in these efforts. For a generation often associated with laziness, colloquially, and, in the academic literature, with “slacktivism,” the observations were in opposition to popular perception of the demographic.
Democratic quality, according to many participants, must be measured by outcomes: by good governance and by development progress. Gen Z Nepalis do not expect a miracle, with several mentioning that if the RSP proves unable to rein in everyday, petty corruption, party leaders will not be the only ones to blame; they also bear responsibility for the health of their democracy.
Democracy is an iterative process, requiring regular engagement, not one-off participation and a singular outcome.