Backsliding and Endurance of Parliamentary System in Bangladesh

Chowdhury, Jashim

Abstract

Bangladesh’s parliamentary system has endured an eventful journey through one-party monopoly, military dictatorship, non-political caretaker governments and an era of competitively authoritarian bipartisanship. The country is now settled in for another round of one-party dominance. However, the Parliament continues to exist for the sake of existence. The failure of the parliamentary system in Bangladesh has some understandable reasons if not justifications. Two fundamentally opposed political parties feature Bangladesh’s post-1990 politics of competitive authoritarianism. They disagree on almost everything, including the fundamental principles of the original Constitution of 1972. The bloody political coups and countercoups have instilled a perpetual sense of hostility, distrust, and intolerance among the two political blocks. These parties are internally undemocratic. They are patriarchal and clientelist, too. Bangladesh’s party system appears to be the most formidable roadblock to parliamentary assertiveness. In this context, this chapter argues that an incremental approach to increasing the Parliament’s public engagement and people’s access to the Parliament could be a modest step forward. If the Parliament can attain its support base independent of the political parties and their leaders, it could potentially place the institution in the very foundational spring broad standing on which it can hope to start contributing to the country’s
constitutional project.

Citation

Chowdhury, J. (2024). Backsliding and Endurance of Parliamentary System in Bangladesh. In A. J. Chowdhury, M. Khalequzzaman, & Q. Z. Iqbal (Eds.), The Constitution of Bangladesh: Search for a Just Society (91-109). Universal Book House

• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2024
• Deposit Date: Oct 25, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 21, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 91-109
• Book Title: The Constitution of Bangladesh: Search for a Just Society
• Chapter Number: 3
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4790416