The State of Governance Bangladesh 2013

162 Pages·2012·3.67 MB·English

by  Amal Das

The State of Governance
Bangladesh 2013
Democracy Party Politics
VOICE VIOLENCE
DEMOCRACY
POLITICS
POWERPEOPLE
PARTYARCHY INFLUENCE
PARTY FINANCING
CONSTITUTION
NOMINATION
VOICE
CONTROL
REPRESENTATION
COMMITTEE FUNCTIONING
INTERESTS
BRAC Institute of Governance and Development
BRAC University

The State of Governance
Bangladesh 2013
Democracy Party Politics
INTERESTS
BRAC Institute of Governance and Development
BRAC University
The State of Governance Bangladesh 2013
Democracy, Party, Politics
BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD)
BRAC University
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Copyright ©August 2014
ISBN: 978-984-33-8064-7
Recommended Citation
BIGD, 2014. The State of Governance Bangladesh 2013: Democracy, party, politics.
BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, BRAC University, Dhaka.
Production and copy editing
Ramizah Ahmed, Ekram Hossain, Kazi Masel Ullah
Cover: Amal Das
Layout and Production: Color Line, Ga- 188/2, Mohakhali, Dhaka – 1212, Bangladesh
Price: BDT 700
USD 15
Acknowledgements
BIGD gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the following individuals who have been
interviewed in the process of this research. The research team takes full responsibility for the contents
of this report.
Professor Rounaq Jahan, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Dr. Akbar Ali Khan, Former Advisor, Caretaker Government of Bangladesh.
Professor Ali Riaz, Illinois State University, USA.
Professor Ataur Rahman, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Professor Nizam Ahmed, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh.
Professor Al-Masud Hasanuzzaman, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh.
Mr. Haidar Akbar Khan Rono, Presidium Member, Communist Party of Bangladesh.
Dr. Badiul Alam Majumder, Convener, Shushasoner Jonno Nagorik (Sujon).
Brig. Gen. Sakhawat Hossain, Former Election Commissioner, Election Commission Bangladesh.
Ms. Ayesha Khanam, Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Khalequzzaman, General Secretary, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Daal.
Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Convener, Nagorik Andolon, Bangladesh.
Ms. Sharmeen Murshid, Chief Executive Officer, BROTEE, Bangladesh.
Ms. Tarana Halim, Member of Parliament, House of the Nation, Bangladesh.
Ms. Rasehda Begum Hira, Former Member of Parliament, House of the Nation, Bangladesh.
Abdul Alim, Director, Election Working Group, Bangladesh.
Sakhawat Liton, Senior Reporter, The Daily Star, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Shahzada Akram, Senior Program Manager, Research and Policy, Transparency International
Bangladersh.
Mohammad Hatem, 1st Vice-president, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers & Exporters
Association.
Mr. Muhammad Amirul Haq, Advocate, Bangladesh Supreme Court
Mr. Shohal Rana Akanda, Advocate, Judge Court, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Contributors
Overall Supervision : Sultan Hafeez Rahman
Research Coordinator : Minhaj Mahmud
Chapter Authors:
Chapter 1 Introduction Sultan Hafeez Rahman
Chapter 2 Partyarchy and political Mirza Hassan, M. Shahidul Islam and
underdevelopment Sultan Mohammed Zakaria
Chapter 3 Inside political parties: scruples Md. Harun-Or-Rashid, Niaz Ahmed Khan,
and practice Sadiat Mannan and Jens Stanislawski
Chapter 4 Political violence in Bangladesh: Syeda Salina Aziz, Rubayet Hamid
district level evidence for 2008-13 and Farhana Razzaque
Chapter 5 Politicians in the parliament Ashikur Rahman and Sultan Mohammed Zakaria
Chapter 6 Inclusive democracy: engendering Marufa Akter and Sohela Nazneen
political parties
Chapter 7 Political party finances: 'norms Kazi Niaz Ahmed, Faiz Ahmed Chowdhury
and practices' and M. Shahidul Islam
Chapter 8 Conclusion Minhaj Mahmud and Sultan Hafeez Rahman
Reviewers
Tofail Ahmed, Kazi Iqbal, Minhaj Mahmud, Sohela Nazneen, Ashikur Rahman, Sultan Hafeez Rahman
Language Editor
Sadaf Saaz Siddiqi
Contents
List of Tables, Maps and Boxes viii
List of Figures ix
List of Acronyms xi
List of Glossary xii
Preface xiii
Executive Summary xv
Chapter 1: Introduction 01
1.1 Preliminaries 01
1.2 Democracy in crisis? 02
1.3 The Political Parties 04
Chapter 2: Partyarchy and Political Underdevelopment 07
2.1. Introduction 07
2.2. A brief overview of partyarchal control over the state and civil society 08
2.3. Methodology and Data 09
2.4. Impersonal institution, monopoly over legitimate use of violence and impact on
state building: The case of police 11
2.4.1 Failure of the state to be impersonal 12
2.4.2 Compromise of state's monopoly on legitimate violence 14
2.4.3 Police reforms: Is there any way out? 15
2.5 Partyarchal influence over civil society, and the rule of law 16
2.5.1 The process of partyarchal capture 18
2.5.2 Implication of partyarchal control of BSCBA on the rule of law 19
2.6 Partyarchy and democratic accountability at the local level 20
2.6.1 Deliberative space created by the UP Act of 2009 20
2.6.2 Partyarchal capture of UP committee system 21
2.7. Concluding observations 22
Chapter 3: Inside Political Parties: Scruples and Practices 25
3.1 Introduction 25
3. 2 Intra-party democracy 26
3.2.1 Concepts and framework for investigation 26
3.3 The scruples: An anatomy of the party constitutions 26
3.3.1 Participation 26
3.3.2 Representation 27
3.3.3 Responsiveness 27
3.3.4 Competition 28
3.3.5 Transparency 31
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3.4 The practice of democracy within the parties: views from the field 32
3.4.1 Participation 33
3.4.2 Representation 34
3.4.3. Competition 34
3.4.4 Responsiveness 37
3.4.5 Transparency 38
3.5 'Party democracy index' (PDI) 39
3.6 Concluding observations 41
Chapter 4 Political Violence in Bangladesh: District Level Evidence for 2008-2013 43
4.1 Introduction 43
4.2 Political violence in the context of Bangladesh 44
4.3 Data and method 45
4.4 Political violence in Bangladesh (2008-13): Trends, patterns, severity and
regional distribution 45
4.4.1 Trend of violence 45
4.4. 2 Severity of political violence 49
4.4.3 Regional distribution of violence 50
4.4.4 Reasons of political violence 54
4.4.5 Explaining political violence in districts 56
4.5 Concluding observations 57
Chapter 5: Politicians in the Parliament 59
5.1. Introduction 59
5.2. Data and methodology 60
5.2.1. Measuring legislative performance 61
5.3. Parliamentarians' characteristics 62
5.3.1. Participation of female politicians 64
5.3.2. Participation of dynastic politicians 64
5.3.3. Participation of businessmen in politics 65
5.3.4. Participation of veteran politicians 66
5.3.5. Participation of politicians facing legal charges 67
5.3.6. Participation of educated political leaders 68
5.3.7. Participation of lawyers and Ex-Military personnel 68
5.4. Do Leader traits matter? 70
5.5. Concluding observations 77
Chapter 6: Inclusive Democracy: Engendering Political Parties 79
6.1 Introduction 79
6.2 Women in politics: the Bangladesh context 80
6.3 Women's presence in political party structures and decision-making bodies 82
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6.4 Women's pathways of political power 84
6.5 Political party position on women's political empowerment 87
6.6 Concluding observations 90
Chapter 7: Political Party Finances: 'Norms and Practices' 93
7.1. Introduction 93
7.2. Study design and methodology 94
7.3. Findings and analysis 95
7.3.1 Sources of party income 95
7.3.2 Areas of political parties' expenditures 98
7.3.3 Electoral funding 98
7.3.4 Transparency and accountability mechanisms 101
7.3.5 Business-politics nexus 104
7.4. Concluding observations 106
Chapter 8: Conclusion 109
References 113
Annex 1 121
Annex 2 133
Annex 3 137
Annex 4 139
vii
List of Tables, Maps and Boxes
List of Tables
Table 3.1 Measuring intra party democracy in AL's and BNP's constitutions 32
Table 4.1 Violence in different regimes for non-election years 46
Table 4.2 Patterns of violence by year 47
Table 4.3 Casualties reported in the period of 2008 -12 & 2013 49
Table 4.4 Major causes of violence in 2008-12 (by intra and inter parties) 55
Table 4.5 Findings 56
Table 5.1 Composition of the national parliament 63
Table 5.2 Women in Bangladesh parliament 64
Table 5.3 Performance of parliamentarians (9th Parliament) 71
Table 5.4 Performance of parliamentarians (8th Parliament) 73
Table 5.5 Performance of parliamentarians: Budget Speech Participation 74
Table 5.6 Performance of parliamentarians: Standing Committee Participation 76
Table 6.1 List of women members in the party hierarchy of five major political parties in
Bangladesh (2014) 82
Table 6.2 Number of women candidates in different parliamentary elections 86
Table 7.1 Income and expenditure statements of AL and BNP submitted to the EC for the
Year 2012 (in taka crore) 97
Table 1-1 Constitutional review 122
Table 1-2 Correlation between AL and BNP Transparency Indices (party office) 127
Table 1-3 Correlation between AL and BNP Transparency Indices (journalists) 127
Table 1-4 Party democracy indices for AL by district 130
Table 1-5 Party democracy indices for BNP by district 131
Table 2-1 Top ranked violent districts 133
Table 2-2 List of variables used in the regression analysis 133
Table 3-1 Political parties in the 9th national parliament and the family connection of their
chairpersons 137
Table 3-2 Description of families producing three generations of leaders 138
Table 4-1 Women in politics at the local level at a glance 139
Table 4-2 Women as independent candidates 139
List of Maps
Map 3.1 “Top” and “Bottom” performing districts according to party democracy index 40
Map 1-1 PDI Mapping of AL districts 128
Map 1-2 PDI Mapping of BNP districts 129
Map 2-1 Political violence in Bangladesh 2008-12 134
Map 2-2 Political violence in Bangladesh 2013 135
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