The Department of Political Science, Tribhuvan University Prithvi Narayan Campus, Pokhara in collaboration with the Central Department of Political Science, Tribhuvan University, Pokhara University and Nepal Intellectual Forum, Pokhara announces a call for papers for the “National Conference on Federalism and Democracy: Possibility and Challenges in Contemporary Politics” to be held in Pokhara on March 15-16, 2024. Interested scholars in various areas of political science and social sciences are invited to submit research-based papers to participate in the conference. 
In Nepal, the political revolution in 1951, two coordinated mass movements in 1990 and 2006, and numerous other political movements that resulted in the Constitutional Assembly drafting a new constitution in 2015. The series of political movements helped establish a federal democratic republic with seven provinces and seven hundred and fifty-three local governments. However, the new three-tier governance system posed great challenges in the country to provide good governance and address the aspirations of the people. The political parties failed to institutionalize the federal democratic republic nation.

The three-tier government model has completed its first tenure. However, discourse on the experience of first tenure has provided a fruitful directive to move ahead. The Nepali politics and society with various forms of class, caste, ethnic, gender, and regional inequality aspires to move ahead to achieve its development goals of combating poverty, inequality and exclusion. In fact, the success of the country depends on the system of governance that operates within the contemporary politics. A rigorous analysis over these issues can generate relevant knowledge for policy formulations, thereby strengthening the federal democratic republic nation and making progress in the country.

The purpose of the conference, therefore, is to share research findings among researchers, academics and university teachers to examine and debate on Nepal's democratic transition and political structure. The main theme of the conference is "Federalism and Democracy: Possibility and Challenges in Contemporary Politics." The conference papers on related topics, focusing on the main theme, such as diverse facets of Nepal's social life and comparative studies with an emphasis on Nepal, will be accepted for presentations in the conference.

These are the following topics in Nepali politics:

• Strengthening federal democracy in Nepal
• A debate on federalism with whether two tiers of government or three tiers of government is suitable for Nepal 
• Federalism and geo-politics
• Regional and global diplomacy to strengthen federalism in Nepal
• Relevance of new/old political parties in federalism
• Emerging conflict between local, provincial and federal government and its resolutions
• The institutional problem with federalism
• The role of civil society in federalism Political institutions of unitary system in restructuring for federal system?
• Policy science and federalism 
• Federalism and review of the existing election system
• Models for exercising concurrent rights by the different governments
• Retrospect of first five years of federalism in Nepal
• Federalism and the issue of good governance
• Ethnic issues in federalism
• Fiscal federalism and its aftermath in Nepalese economy
• Taxation issues in federalism
• Law making in local government and provincial government
• Migration trends and federalism
• Sociological perspectives on people’s perception towards federalism
• How social media affects federalism
• Political culture in federalism     

Write-up Specifications:

• The abstract should not exceed the words limit of 300 words.
• The title of the paper, a short description of research method and major arguments/findings should be clearly stated in the abstract.
• A one-page CV of the author should be attached along with the abstract.
• The full paper should not exceed the words limit of 6000 words.
• For formatting, citations, referencing, etc., please follow the APA style guide.

Dates to remember
Abstract submission deadline: February 15, 2024
Notification of accepted abstracts: February 30, 2024
Deadline for the full paper submission: March 7, 2024 
Notification of accepted papers: March 12, 2024
Notes: Accommodations for paper presenters in Pokhara will be arranged by the organizing committee.

For submission of the abstract, papers and any queries, please contact through email: psnconference2024@gmail.com
Online Registration : Online registration for DoPS National Conference 2024

Conference Secretariat
Department of Political Science 
Prithvi Narayan Campus, Pokhara