Politics and Governance in Bangladesh: Uncertain Landscapes

213 Pages·2018·13.143 MB·English

by  Ipshita Basu, Joe Devine, Geof Wood

Politics and Governance in
Bangladesh
Since its Independence in 1971, Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in
terms of reducing poverty levels, achieving high levels of economic growth over
a sustained period of time, and meeting its Millennium Development Goals
(MDG) targets set by the United Nations. With some justification, Bangladesh is
considered an international development success story, and the country appears
to be well on track to meet its policy target of becoming a middle- income
country by 2021, the same year the country will celebrate 50 years of
Independence.
This book explores the central issue of Bangladeshi politics: the weakness of
governance. The coexistence of a poor governance track record and a relatively
strong socioeconomic performance makes Bangladesh an intriguing case which
throws up exciting and relevant conceptual and policy challenges. Structured in
four sections – Political Settlement, Elites and Deep Structures; Democracy, Cit-
izenship and Values; Civil Society, Local Context and Political Change; Inform-
ality and Accountability – the book identifies and engages with these challenges.
Chapters by experts in the field share a number of conceptual and epistemologi-
cal principles and offer a combination of theoretical and empirical insights, and
cover a good range of contemporary issues and debate.
Employing a structurally determinist perspective, this book explains politics
and society in Bangladesh from a novel perspective. Academics in the field of
governance and politics in developing countries, with a focus on South Asia and
Bangladesh, will welcome its publication.
Ipshita Basu is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of
Westminster, UK.
Joe Devine is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences,
University of Bath, UK.
Geof Wood is Emeritus Professor of International Development and Visiting
Professor at the Centre for Development Studies, University of Bath, UK.
Routledge Studies in South Asian Politics
1 Nepal and the Geo- Strategic 7 Public Policy and Governance
Rivalry between China and in Bangladesh
India Forty Years of Experience
Sanjay Upadhya Nizam Ahmed
2 Security Community in 8 Separatist Violence in
South Asia South Asia
Muhammad Shoaib Pervez A Comparative Study
Matthew J. Webb
3 Refugees and Borders in
South Asia 9 Pakistan’s Democratic Transition
The Great Exodus of 1971 Change and Persistence
Antara Datta Edited by Ishtiaq Ahmad and
Adnan Rafiq
4 India’s Human Security
Lost Debates, Forgotten People, 10 Localizing Governance in India
Intractable Challenges Bidyut Chakrabarty
Edited by Jason Miklian and
Ashild Kolas 11 Government and Politics in
Sri Lanka
5 Poverty and Governance in Biopolitics and Security
South Asia A.R. Sriskanda Rajah
Syeda Parnini
12 Politics and Governance in
6 US–Pakistan Relations Bangladesh
Pakistan’s Strategic Choices in Uncertain Landscapes
the 1990s Edited by Ipshita Basu,
Nasra Talat Farooq Joe Devine and Geof Wood
Politics and Governance in
Bangladesh
Uncertain Landscapes
Edited by Ipshita Basu, Joe Devine
and Geof Wood
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Ipshita Basu, Joe Devine and
Geof Wood; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial
matter, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for their
permission to reprint material in this book. The publishers would be
grateful to hear from any copyright holder who is not here acknowledged
and will undertake to rectify any errors or omissions in future editions of
this book.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Basu, Ipshita, editor. | Devine, Joe, 1963– editor. | Wood,
Geoffrey D., 1945– editor.
Title: Politics and governance in Bangladesh : uncertain landscapes /
edited by Ipshita Basu, Joe Devine and Geof Wood.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. | Series:
Routledge studies in South Asian politics ; 12 | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017011563| ISBN 9781138707610 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781315201337 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Bangladesh–Politics and government–1971– |
Political culture–Bangladesh.
Classification: LCC JQ635 .P67 2018 | DDC 320.95492–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017011563
ISBN: 978-1-138-70761-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-20133-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
In loving memory of Dr Jalal Alamgir. A generous, passionate
and promising intellectual who was taken away much too soon.

Contents
List of figures x
List of tables xi
Notes on contributors xii
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction: contesting political space: who governs in
Bangladesh 1
IPSHITA BASU, JOE DEVINE AND GEOF WOOD
Agrarian legacy: from feudal deference to mastaanisation 5
Institutions and organisations: the reality-r hetoric gap 6
Bengali or Bangladeshi? The foundations of present political
contention 7
Deep structures: the social and cultural prison 10
Chapter outline 13
1 Party dysfunction and homeostasis in Bangladesh: the old
disorder restored (or not) 17
HARRY BLAIR
Democracy’s trajectory in Bangladesh 18
Rules of the dysfunctional game 20
The caretaker interregnum and the elections of 2008 22
The old (dis)order restored 24
Breaking away from homeostasis 29
Misperceived homeostasis? 30
Prognosis 31
A third scenario 32
Conclusion 35
viii Contents
2 Where are the drivers of governance reform? 39
PIERRE LANDELL- MILLS
The challenge 39
A paradigm for state building 39
How does Bangladesh fit the paradigm? 42
The potential drivers of governance reform 47
Donor support for governance reform 54
The way forward 58
3 Citizen- centered governance: lessons from high- performing
Asian economies for Bangladesh 62
hABIBUL hAqUE KhONDKER
Introduction 62
Governance and development 68
Lessons of development from high- performing economies with
special reference to Singapore 74
Democracy and development 79
Future directions: a blind alley or a rising sun? 82
4 Governance, rights and the demand for democracy:
evidence from Bangladesh 86
IPShITA BASU, GRAhAM K. BROWN AND JOE DEVINE
Introduction 86
Governance in Bangladesh between frustration and hope 89
Methods 93
Support for democracy: ambiguous democrats and ambiguous
theocrats 93
Ambiguity around governance: a question of being pragmatic 98
Conclusion 103
5 Deconstructing the natural state? Is there room for de
Tocqueville or only Gramsci in Bangladesh 107
GEOF WOOD
Introduction 107
Significance of the natural state for civil society 108
The concept of permeability 110
Apparent and hidden behaviour 110
‘Natural, limited access states’ applied to Bangladesh 111
Social origins of present deep structures 113
The surreal context for civil society 114
Contents ix
The demand side role of civil society 116
Holistic and marginal risk: sustaining the demand side 116
The PMUS case 117
Conclusion 121
6 When things go wrong in NGOs: what can be learned from
cases of organisational breakdown and ‘failure’? 125
DAVID LEWIS
Introduction 125
NGOs in Bangladesh 127
Narratives of NGO decline, disintegration and ‘failure’ 130
Case study: Comilla Proshika 132
Making sense of ‘things going wrong’ 134
What can we learn from all this? 137
Conclusion: ‘failure’ as process and progress 140
7 The significance of unruly politics in Bangladesh 143
NAOMI hOSSAIN
Introduction: why political rule-b reaking matters 143
Motivations 144
Some ideas about unruly politics 150
Unruly politics in Bangladesh 158
Conclusions: what unruliness means for the governance
agenda 164
8 Governance challenges in Bangladesh: old wine in not so
new bottles? 168
JOE DEVINE, IPShITA BASU AND GEOF WOOD
Introduction 168
Using governance to understand political developments in
Bangladesh 169
Bangladesh: a brief governance update 172
Peeking into the future 174
References 177
Index 192