'Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE)'
Doi
Abstract
―When groups are adequately stated, everything is stated!‖1
Management of actions and interest groups has historically been
sovereign‘s existentialist imperative. The paper revitalizes
philosophical state autonomy debate and then narrows down its focus to
capture extractive antics of as erratic a state as Pakistan. A typology
of factions – captioned as Elites – operative in extractive realm of
Pakistan is developed to round them in theory, identify their
properties, and lay bare mechanics of intra-elite and elite-non-elite
transactions. The paper seminally develops the rational actor dilemma
confronting Pakistani elites and identifies the modes through which the
dilemma plausibly resolves itself. The transactional engagement between
Pakistan‘s internal and external rational actors is dissected to
theorize that Pakistan essentially is an equilibrium consensus
subsistence state thereby opening up vast vistas for future research.
The paper concludes with the glum finding that Pakistan in its current
essence and manifestation is fundamentally a captive state – beholden to
elites of Pakistan. JEL Classification: H1 Keywords: State Autonomy;
Elite Capture; Pakistan‘s Tax System; Pakistani Elites; Elites‘ Rational
Actor Dilemma; Equilibrium Consensus Subsistence State; Captive
Stat
