| Abstrakt: |
The democratic transition of Bhutan is often romanticised in popular media through the utopian projection of Gross National Happiness. Adhering to the democracy as tailored by the King is viewed by the Bhutanese as a gift to live by without questioning or even criticising. Accordingly, the paper will examine the political culture of Bhutan to give an insight into its process of democratic transition and functioning. It will attempt to understand the Bhutanese political culture to analyse the danger of inaccurate conclusions based on misconceptions not entirely true to Bhutan's reality. This article is written with the support of the ICSSR post-doctoral fellowship programme (2018-2019) on 'Democracy and Nationalism in Bhutan: Challenges and Prospects'. However, the responsibility for the facts stated, opinion expressed, and the conclusions drawn is entirely of the author. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
