Synthetic Statocracy - Pakistan’s Self-Created Inferno: Examining the Causes and Consequences of Military Dominance in Pakistan

This paper examines the history of military rule in Pakistan. Applying the framework of Johannes Gerschewski in The Three Pillars of Stability: Legitimation, Repression and Co-Optation in Autocratic Regimes, this paper looks to explain how military rulers who presided over the three periods of military rule in Pakistan consolidated and maintained their power, as well as the effects that these periods of rule had on Pakistani society. This paper will also supplement Gerschewski’s general framework by applying the findings of various established authors who have been published extensively on Pakistan’s political history, economy and relationship with the military. Such authors include Ishrat Husain, Hasan Askari Rizvi, Hussain Haqqani, Ayesha Jalal and Ian Talbot. This paper will also make use of economic data that is publicly available thanks to the Pakistani government to support its claims, as well as journalistic publications to establish contextual information about societal attitudes. Ultimately, by synthesizing the works of Gerschewski, Husain and Acemoglu and Robinson, this paper will conclude that the path forward for Pakistan must involve institutional reform, although endogenous factors such as societal norms and the established grip of the military pose significant barriers to any such reform.