'Formal Adoption - Informal Subversion': Limits of International Constitutional Assistance

Abstract

Peace processes involve reforming or rewriting constitutions as a pathway to establishing an inclusive state, often with international constitutional assistance (ICA). Examining Nepal’s post-conflict constitution-writing process, this article explores why ICA fails to deliver on inclusion. It argues that ICA’s prioritisation of formal aspects – inclusive institutional design and participatory process – makes it unable to influence informal politics through which elites informally subvert formal commitments on inclusive institutions in a bid to retain their power. This ‘formal adoption-informal subversion’ of inclusion-related commitments by elites is enabled by elites adopting four strategies, namely neglect, overwrite, trade-off, and exploit of formal commitments.