Pakistan’s 2018 general elections marked the second successful transfer of power from one elected civilian government to another—a remarkable achievement considering the country’s history of dictatorial rule. Pakistan’s Political Parties examines how the civilian side of the state’s current regime has survived the transition to democracy, providing critical insight into the evolution of political parties in Pakistan and their role in developing democracies in general.

Pakistan’s numerous political parties span the ideological spectrum, as well as represent diverse regional, ethnic, and religious constituencies. The essays in this volume explore the way in which these parties both contend and work with Pakistan’s military-bureaucratic establishment to assert and expand their power. Researchers use interviews, surveys, data, and ethnography to illuminate the internal dynamics and motivations of these groups and the mechanisms through which they create policy and influence state and society.

Pakistan’s Political Parties is a one-of-a-kind resource for diplomats, policymakers, journalists, and scholars searching for a comprehensive overview of Pakistan’s party system and its unlikely survival against an interventionist military, with insights that extend far beyond the region.

Overall, there is little doubt that Pakistan’s Political Parties marks an important, multi-faceted breakthrough in the study of Pakistan’s politics and the particularities of institutional power and form found within its political sphere. From a readership perspective, the general language, analytical style, and accessibility of the volume make it well suited for both a social science academic audience looking to study Pakistan in a comparative or singular perspective, and to more curious general readers as well.

If I were a young diplomat heading to a political-reporting assignment in Pakistan, I would definitely want this volume on my bookshelf. It has the strength one expects from an academic work. Importantly, it conveys the tremendous diversity of Pakistan’s ethnic and religious landscape, and the complexity of all the parties’ relationships with the military.

Mariam Mufti is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Waterloo.

Sahar Shafqat is a professor of political science at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Niloufer Siddiqui is an assistant professor of political science at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at University at Albany, State University of New York.