...history, democracies have been the exception rather than the norm. In the present day world, about 60 percent of the world's nations are democracies. Other nations have rulers assigned by heredity or have used the military to take leadership by force or rule by wealth or charisma. There are however, fundamental benefits of a democracy. The main benefit of democracy is that every adult person regardless of race, religious belief or gender has the same political rights as each other. People living in a democratic society are protected from oppression by laws and limits on governmental power. Democratic governments put laws into place to protect their citizens and to ensure a safe and fair society. The people who lead a democratic country have to obey the same laws as everyone else. Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens participate equally—either directly or indirectly through elected representatives—in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. It encompasses social, religious, cultural, ethnic and racial equality, justice, liberty and fraternity. The quest for democracy in Bangladesh is moving in circles. The country gained its independence through both the democratic process and through war. During the four decades of its existence as a nation-state it has endured spells of military and non-military rules. Of the latter all were not elected. The elected governments seemed to betray superficial practices of democracy. In Bangladesh...
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...Constitutional Reform in Bangladesh: Exploring the Agenda M. Jashim Ali Chowdhury 1. Prelude The Bangladeshi brand of democracy has caused some horrible nightmares in recent times. Though democracy in Bangladesh has got a certain degree of consolidation during the last eighteen years, ‘she could not make significant progress in consolidating her democratic institutions.’1 Over the years Bangladesh has gone through a phase of ‘illiberal democracy’ with the politicians behaving autocratically, rewarding political supporters and punishing the opposition. Partisan, financial and personal interests curbed the bureaucracy, judiciary, police or even the legislature.2 Disorder became the order, irregular the regular, and Machiavellism the political culture.3 On the other hand, the concept of separation of power has got a violent blow in the Constitution of Bangladesh. What the Constitution has done can very well be described as ‘assignment of powers’ of the Republic to the three organs of the Government.4 Concentration of power in the hands of Prime Minister resulted in paralyzing both the judiciary and legislature with leviathan omnipotence of the executive. Today’s Bangladesh may well be termed a ‘one legged state’ while the theory of separation of power contemplates a three legged one. Much water has already flown by and considerable amount of silt has filed up on this issue. Someone sought overnight purified democracy ‘suitable to the genius of the people of Bangladesh’ while some other...
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...who drafted the 15th amendment for "upgrading" their status from an "upajati" (sub-nation) to full "jati" (nation) by legally making them Bangalis from their hitherto status as Chakmas and members of other hill tribes of the country. The tone of sarcasm and sadness in his words did not escape viewers' attention. Another tribal leader who was interviewed on the same issue said that regrettably when the Parliamentary Committee was making such fundamental changes in the Constitution affecting their fate; it did not consider it at all necessary to talk to them. This leader said that their efforts to be heard fell on deaf ears of the Committee. The 15th amendment has denied the status of indigenous people to 3 million of the people of Bangladesh who do not speak Bengali and are not part...
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...perspective on good governance and human development, along with a sense of what is needed for such development. * Performance: Institutions and processes try to serve all stakeholders and institutions produce results that meet needs while making the best use of resources. * Accountability: Decision makers in government, the private sector and civil society organizations are accountable to the public. * Fairness: All men and women have opportunities to improve and maintain their well-being and legal framework should be fair and enforced impartially, particularly the laws on human rights. Bangladesh constitution provides most of the essential elements for good governance though the country is yet to fully develop right policies, environment, institutions, capacity and practice of good governance. Despite return to parliamentary democracy following a mass movement for democracy in 1990, and subsequent free and fair elections under neutral caretaker governments, establishment of democratic norms and practices has not been smooth in the country. Lack of adequate accountability and...
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...present in democracies, raising concerns that inequality in the distribution of political power may reflect imperfections in democratic representation. WHY DYNASTY? The characteristics of political leaders matter depends on how much discretionary authority they employ. In particular, if executive con- straints are weak, selection through dynasties could be important, especially if leadership competence is transmitted across generations through either nature or nurture. Moreover, dynastic selection of leaders based on their competence will result in a positive correlation between economic perfor-mance and having a dynastic leader in o¢ ce. Dynasties will also become established and survive based on economic performance. Selection through Dynasties We use an extremely simple adverse selection model to illustrate the main ideas and to motivate the empirical test. While there are many simplifying features built into the model, it is based on two core ideas: (i) internal controls (executive constraints) lowers the economic cost of having incompetent leaders (ii) if internal controls are ab-sent, then performance-related selection is valuable and will lead to selection through dynasties if there is a positive correlation of leadership competence within families. The two major political parties in Bangladesh are dynastic, like other wellknown parties in South Asia. Political dynasty means a prominent political family runs the party. This restricts the level of internal democracy of the...
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...Political Environment of Bangladesh: The political system of Bangladesh is followed by representative democracy. Despite being a democratic country the safeguards of democracy are not being exercised properly which have negative impact on business operation. Political unrest is almost a daily occurrence in Bangladesh which hinders the daily national and international trading system of the country. Foreign firms are feared to come in Bangladesh with FDI. Bangladesh is a democratic country in name but not in action. The following biased democracy safeguards are some of the main hindrances of international business in Bangladesh. Individual right to freedom of expression, opinion and organization are restricted. Media are more or less biased to the current government. There is more or less regular election sometimes major parties avoid election. There are often face to face clashes among the leading political parties. Despite being the court system is independent most of the times its functions are directed by current government. Corrupted political state bureaucracy Corrupted political police and armed force. This situation does not support entrepreneurship that’s why it can not make a man innovative. That’s why local business can not be strong. To be competitive in international business such political system and government is failing to make local business more efficient and more effective. That’s why Bangladesh is lagging behind in international...
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...benefits for mankind and its opponents stressing disproportionate benefits for the rich, and marginalisation and disempowerment of the poor, for countries such as Bangladesh with low income, smaller capacities and even lesser bargaining turf, globalisation has thrown up a host of challenges with great rapidity. And yet we continually strive to integrate into a globalised world whilst balancing our national agenda of democracy, development and trade. While speaking on Bangladesh, since coming here as Bangladesh’s High Commissioner I have come to realize, increasingly and sadly as time has gone by, that Bangladesh is often bypassed and when discussed or referred to in the South Asian context, the emphasis more often than not is on negative elements. Overcoming certain misperceptions about my country and bringing it out of the ugly shadows generated by misinformation, sometimes seem in itself the biggest challenge to me. However, whatever we as a nation have achieved since our independence have come as part of our victories in our persistent struggle on numerous fronts in an increasingly globalized world. As it traversed the oceans of fire and blood during its long struggle for national independence, across the barren desert of autocratic rule and overcoming the horrendous calamities wrought by nature’s wrath, Bangladesh has manifested, if nothing else, its indomitable spirit of defiance, its astonishing resilience and the thunder in its heart. And its people are the heroic...
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...multilateral trade regimes, to rallying for the protection of the environment, to protesting against illegitimate regimes. The voicing of differing views and political debate over policies is a healthy feature of any modern democracy. As the Human Development Report 2002 notes: Changes in the world have shifted human development priorities and made political freedom, participation and collective action much more important as public policy issues.... Open space for free political debate and the diverse ways in which people can express their views are the essence democratic life and are what make decision making work in democracies In this context, the right to call ‘a hartal’ -- a particular form of protest used in Bangladesh and in other parts of South Asia -- could be viewed is a legitimate democratic right. However, when this right impinges on the rights of individuals to earn a living and to go about their daily lives in peace and security, a situation of ‘conflict of competing rights’ arises. Hartals are often called in ‘the name of the people’, but it is ordinary people whose movements are restricted, property endangered, and progress curbed. Children miss school, the sick miss treatment, and business miss targets. In addition, the reality in Bangladesh is that the success of hartals often rests on coercion, or even the use of payment to ‘hired hands’ by hartal organisers to mobilise support. At the same time, hartals can also be viewed a ‘symptom’ of the frustration...
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...Democracy- The myth and the reality Dr. Mizanur Rahman Shelley Independent, 29 November 2012 Present times claim to manifest an “Age of democracy”. Since the beginning of the nineteen-nineties a varitable wave of democratization has been sweeping the world. This has been accompanied by a surge of open market-economy. The two systems received powerful fillips from the collapse of socialist polities and economies in the erstwhile socialist countries such as now-defunct Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies. Socialism in these lands crumbled on account of internal factors. They are still in the process of challenging transition from socialist single party states and command economies to multiparty democracies and capitalist, market friendly economic systems. Even those countries with socialist political system such as China and Vietnam are liberalizing their economies with positive results in terms of progress and prosperity. In these nations political liberalization, though at a slower pace is also gradually becoming visible. Similar changes, particularly of political system, took place outside the former or existing socialist countries. From the closing decade of the twentieth century up-to-date a large number of Asian, African and Arab countries in North Africa and Middle-East made dramatic transition from rigidly dictatorial to avowedly democratic systems. Internal and external factors blended in varied mix to bring forth this apparently welcome change. In several...
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...speech is recognized in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh as one of the fundamental rights and right to information is an inalienable part of freedom of thought, conscience and speech; and whereas all powers of the Republic belong to the people, and it is necessary to ensure right to information for the empowerment of the people; and Whereas if the right to information of the people is ensured, the transparency and accountability of all public, autonomous and statutory organizations and of other private institutions constituted or run by government or foreign financing shall increase, corruption of the same shall decrease and good governance of the same shall be established. Right to Information Act In today’s world, freedom of information is the pre-requisite of sustainable development due to its driving power. Free flow of information and its consumption boosts a country’s progress and prosperity. Effectiveness of democracy and security of human rights vastly depends on freedom of expression and information, in other word, freedom of the press. Understanding the essence many countries- from developed to developing- now open the shutters and nod the people’s right to the access of information resources. In recent years, a number of nations enacted the freedom of information law including neighboring India in 2005, Pakistan in 2002, and Nepal in 2007. After the restoration of democracy in 1990, gradually a demand of giving the people the right or access...
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...Political Stability and Economic Development: The Case of Bangladesh 1. Introduction Among the non-economic variables considered as sine qua non for development, political stability comes first. One may argue that other non-economic factors like rule of law, law and order situation are subsumed under political stability. On the other hand, major determinants of development like savings and investment, relative price stability, human resources, level of technology, factor productivity can play an effective role when political atmosphere is congenial. For example, it is argued that political stability and convenient law and order ensure the confidence of the people in the economy and its further development, which encourages the people to save. It also promotes confidence of the investors in the economy and convinces them to invest and reinvest. Of course, price stability, higher education and technical qualifications of the population, increasing factor productivity, technological modernity, export promotion etc. may not be directly related to political stability. But political stability in the long run ultimately ensures a relative price stability, improves educational and qualification status of the people, increases factor productivity, enables technology transfer, promotes exports. Those are the factors essential for economic growth. Moreover, long term political stability provides a congenial atmosphere for evolution of democracy. Democratic political order in turn, can ensure political...
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...A Research Report On Political Victimization of Dhaka University Hall Students A Research Report On Political Victimization of Dhaka University Hall Students Course: Business Research Course no: MGT-407 Submitted to: Dr.Mohammad Shariat Ullah Assistant Professor Department of Management University of Dhaka Submitted by: Md. Nur Alom siddique Roll: 18165 18th Batch Department of Management University of Dhaka. Date of submission: Letter of Transmittal October 30, 2014 Dr. Muhammad Shariat Ullah Assistant Professor Department of Management University of Dhaka. Subject: Submission of research report on political Victimization of Dhaka University Hall Students. Dear Sir, Here is the research report on “Political Victimization of Dhaka University hall Students”. The report is prepared on the primary and secondary data from different sources. Recommendations are only subjective judgment of mine. I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to know elaborately about preparing research report. I sincerely prepared this research report. I truly appreciated this assignment and I enjoyed it very much. Yours Sincerely Md. Nur Alom Siddique Serial No: 18165 Section: B Session: 2011-12 Batch: 18th Department Of Management University Of Dhaka ...
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...2/8/2016 Problems and Prospects for Modern Business Enterprises of Bangladesh Submitted to: Dr. Sabnam Jahan Associate Professor Department of Management University of Dhaka. Submitted by: Abul Kalam Azad EMBA Student code: 3-16-32-063 Course code & Title: EM: 501 Introduction to Business Abul Kalam Azad BANGLADESH POLICE Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Business Background of Bangladesh ....................................................................................................................... 2 Problems and Prospects for Modern Enterprises ............................................................................................... 4 Poverty and inequality ........................................................................................................................................... 4 Social development ................................................................................................................................................ 4 Political affairs, good governance and human rights ...................................................................................... 4 Security matters ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 Indigenous...
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...Democracy & Constitutionalism in South Asia: The Bangladesh Experience Gowher Rizvi Ash Institute for Democratic Governance & Innovation Kennedy School of Government Harvard University Today democracy is a universal aspiration. Even the military dictatorships and authoritarian communist regimes seek to cloak themselves with democratic trappings and pretensions. To judge by the list of countries those that have held some sort of ‘popular elections’ to validate their regimes, there are very few governments around the world that would not be termed democratic. Under the rules of electoral head counting it would perhaps be impossible not to accord democratic status even to states like Iraq or Pakistan or North Korea. The leaders in all of these countries and numerous others have sought to legitimize their rule through varying degrees of popular ‘mandates’ and ‘endorsements’. Yet very few of these countries would actually be considered democratic if they were subjected to the more rigorous tests of constitutionalism. Popular elections and renewal of popular mandates are essential, but not sufficient, conditions for democracy. At best, a free and fair popular election is one step in the process of a constitutional democratic government. Constitutionalism, like democracy, is a dynamic and complex concept that is constantly evolving. Although there have been changes in emphases and its nuances, the core of constitutionalism has remained constant over time: constitutionalism is about...
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...Executive Summary: Right to information refers to people’s right to have all the necessary information regarding the political, legal and similar areas which is directly correlated to their daily lives. In Bangladesh, though people have very limited or no information at all due to lack of willingness and ability to obtain the necessary information’s. Thus the general people should look forward how this bridge can be closed between themselves and the government officials to obtain the necessary and rightful information. The technology is advancing day by day throughout the world. Thus obtaining information has become much easier and flexible. Not only the general people but it is also the responsibility of those who are the holders of that information. They are also equally responsible for passing those to the general people with full efficiency and accuracy. Sadly due to the negligence of both parties this information flow is reduced compared to the early days since the nation’s independence in 1971. Lots of problem is faced by the nation’s citizens specially the people who belong to the rural areas. Due to unaware of their own right, thousands of people had faced difficulties on both professional and personal context. Our focus is on the factors of this decreased information flow as well as the initiatives to be taken which can reduce this massive problem in our country. Contents: • Introduction • Theoretical Overview • Findings ...
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