Deep Culture and Political Shifts: Applying Causal Layered Analysis to Understand Pakistan's Post-2013 Authoritarian Turn

Abstract

This paper addresses Pakistan’s drift to authoritarianism after the 2013 General
Elections using Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) as lens to deconstruct the various layers
of political system. It looks at events, trends, institutions, policy, rhetoric/discourse,
and myth/metaphor to give a conceptual analysis of why this transition has finally
occurred and what cultural formations underpin it. The first level, the litany layer,
analyzes how people and the media evaluated the changes in the political landscape.
The second level, the systemic cause layer, discusses civil-military relations, judicial
involvement, elections, economic issues, and changes in laws and policies. Security,
nationalism, and governance within political discourses and how media and culture
continue to either reinforce or subvert such authoritarian discourses are scrutinized in
the discourse/worldview layer. The myth/metaphor layer examines archetypal cultural
narratives, which shape people’s actions in politics and their receptiveness to
authoritarianism. This way, numerous and interwoven strands, including civilizational
variables and political transitions, come to the fore.