The establishment
of monarchy in 1907 was the watershed event in the history of
modern Bhutan. The country enjoyed peace and progress under
successive reformist monarchs. The third king, His Majesty Jigme
Dorji Wangchuck reformed the old pseudo-feudal systems by
abolishing serfdom, redistributing land, and reforming taxation.
He also introduced many executive, legislative, and judiciary
reforms. The fourth king, His Majesty
Jigme Singye Wangchuck, took decentralization to the people,
and devolved all executive powers to a council of ministers elected
by the people in 1998, besides introducing a system of voting
no confidence in the king, which empowered the parliament to remove
the monarch. The national Constitution Committee started drafting
the Constitution of the Kingdom
of Bhutan in 2001. The Draft Constitution was distributed
to the people in 2005, which was followed by public consultation
initiated by the 4th and 5th Kings. Its implementation will establish
parliamentary democracy in the country.
The people
in different villages of the gewog in turn elect the chimis (people’s
repressentatives). The king is now the head of the state. The
government is elected by the parliament for a five-year term,
with the head of the government or post of prime minister rotating
amongst the ministers. At the district level, Dzongda functions
as the chief executive officer and the gup (gewog head man) elected
by the people is the chief executive officer at gewog level. Under
the policy of greater decentralization and empowerment of the
people, the Dzongkhag Yargay
Tshogdu and the Geog Yargye Tshogchung have been given full
administrative, policy making and financial powers in their respective
Dzongkhags. Therefore,
the success of development programmes will now be determined by
the decisions taken by the people and the quality of their participation
in implementing them.
