Hybrid Regimes and state failure in Fatima Bhutto’s The Shadow of the Crescent Moon

Abstract

Hybrid Regime is a system of government in which some aspects of liberal democracy are incorporated with autocratic ones and there is a relationship between degree of Hybridism and likeliness of state failure. The present research studies The Shadow of the Crescent Moon in the context of hybrid regimes. Fatima Bhutto’s novel is set in Mir Ali, a small town in the tribal areas of Pakistan close to Waziristan. The novel presents Pakistanas a state where lawlessness abounds, and people’s fundamental rights are frequently usurped, which the present research regards as state failure andlocates this failure in Hybrid Regimes. Qualitative content analysis technique is used for data analysis. The works of Fareed Zakaria and Ayesha Sadiqa on hybrid regimes are used to form a conceptual framework for this research.