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Published on February 24, 2021
Link: https://devpolicy.org/bangladesh-at-50-development-without-democracy-20210224/
Date downloaded: April 24, 2021
Page 1 of 5
(Bryon Lippincott/Flickr)
Bangladesh at 50: development
without democracy?
By Mubashar Hasan and Kathinka Fossum Evertsen
This year marks 50 years since Bangladesh’s independence, at which time the
country was described as a developmental “basket case”. Independence was
achieved after a devastating cyclone and a bloody independence war and was
soon followed by a country-wide famine. Then, when the country started hitting
one development target after the other and eventually begun scoring better than
neighbouring India, Bangladesh surprised everybody and emerged as an
Published on February 24, 2021
Link: https://devpolicy.org/bangladesh-at-50-development-without-democracy-20210224/
Date downloaded: April 24, 2021
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inspirational model for development.
Australia’s relationship with Bangladesh goes back to the 1950s, well before the
country’ independence in 1971, to when it was known as East Pakistan. In
2020-21, Australia allocated $55.7 million for Bangladesh in official development
assistance. Between 1971 and 2019 around 2000 multi-year scholarships were
awarded to Bangladeshis. According to the Australian High Commission in
Bangladesh, many of these alumni now hold leadership positions in the country’s
public and private sectors.
Politics of development
The relationship between the ruling party and the aid community, supported by
international donors, has always been an important part of the inner workings of
Bangladesh. The development scholar David Lewis has described how from 1976
to 1990 the then unelected military rulers were “desperate to build a facade of
legitimacy that could help them to sustain their regimes” and therefore allowed
NGOs to work quite freely as a way to yield such legitimacy. This included NGOs
that worked with awareness raising of political rights and grassroot mobilisations
for political influence of the poor.
However, after 1990, when procedural democracy through parliamentary
elections was introduced, the potential political influence of these NGOs
represented a larger threat to the ruling elites. These political NGOs thus lost
government support, while more apolitical and service-delivery-oriented NGOs
were rewarded. Lewis points out how this change in political climate came at a
time when the Bretton Wood institutions pushed for economic structural reform
programs and the neoliberal development paradigm became influential. As
international donors were more comfortable with supporting service delivery
NGOs, the interests of the government and international aid donors aligned,
which made it easy, if not necessary, for the Bangladeshi government to prioritise
economic growth and service delivery over other concerns.
Published on February 24, 2021
Link: https://devpolicy.org/bangladesh-at-50-development-without-democracy-20210224/
Date downloaded: April 24, 2021
Page 3 of 5
Bangladesh has since seen high economic growth, and large improvements in
health and education and – although the economic effects of COVID-19 are yet to
be known – is on track to graduate from the Least Developed Country group.
However, this success story is qualified by severe human rights violations,
corruption, persistent state attacks on free speech, and voting suppression.
The ruling party Awami League came to power after the 2008 elections, which
received recognition for being free and fair. However, the 2014 election was
boycotted by the opposition and several liberal democracies – including Australia
– called for a re-run. The 2018 elections faced allegations of voter fraud, and
Transparency International reported serious irregularities. In effect, Bangladesh
is now ruled by one party.
With a decrease in legitimacy to rule through elections, the current government
needs to find legitimacy elsewhere. Becoming a middle-income country was a
promise made during Awami League’s 2008 election campaign. Thus, mirroring
earlier entanglements of aid and politics in the world’s aid lab, it seems that since
the neoliberal turn in the 1990s, Bangladesh’s success story has been built on a
selective model where “development” translates to high economic growth and
development targets that lend legitimacy to the politics of the government.
Democratic freedoms, like actual opposition, free press, and unionisation, which
can be used to criticise the politics of the ruling party, are increasingly repressed.
What direction development should take in Bangladesh is not debated through
inclusive discussions. And while many Bangladeshis have seen improvements in
many aspects of their lives over the past 50 years, one can ask whether the
development that has occurred has also been a means to legitimise a “creeping
shift to authoritarianism”.
Prospects for the future
Leaving the Least Developed Country group signifies less aid. This means that the
government will have to look elsewhere for external funding, while Bangladesh’s
Published on February 24, 2021
Link: https://devpolicy.org/bangladesh-at-50-development-without-democracy-20210224/
Date downloaded: April 24, 2021
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large NGO sector and its donors need new ways to make themselves relevant.
Global support for climate change adaptation is expected to eventually reach the
same levels as current development aid. In view of Bangladesh’s role as a climate
change “hotspot”, climate change adaptation emerges as a new source of funding.
Slowly, a climate change adaptation regime is being built upon the existing
development regime in the country.
Adaptation efforts have been criticised for depoliticising climate change through
focusing on technological fixes while overlooking political root causes. It seems
likely that the emerging adaptation regime in Bangladesh will continue to lend
legitimacy to the politics of the ruling party through efforts of the robust network
of national and international NGOs and their donors. This will also allow NGOs to
continue their work and the international donors to stay in the country in line
with their own political interests.
Such foreign political interests are reflected in Bangladesh’s increasing
geostrategic significance because of its position in the Bay of Bengal. As the US-
led China containment policy is growing, the international donor community –
including Australia – is keen to support Bangladesh’s political stability and
economic growth. Sadly, the prospects of reducing corruption and enhancing
democracy remain low, if not out of sight.
About the author/s
Mubashar Hasan
Mubashar Hasan PhD is an adjunct researcher at the Humanitarian and
Development Research Initiative, University of Western Sydney, and a Director of
Pyrmont Consultants Pty Ltd. Formerly he worked for Oxfam and the New
Humanitarian in Bangladesh.
Published on February 24, 2021
Link: https://devpolicy.org/bangladesh-at-50-development-without-democracy-20210224/
Date downloaded: April 24, 2021
Page 5 of 5
Kathinka Fossum Evertsen
Kathinka Fossum Evertsen is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at Nord University in
Norway, a visiting researcher at the International Centre for Climate Change and
Development (ICCCAD) in Bangladesh, and co-founder of the Nordic Hub of
Gender and Disaster Network. She has recently published the article Gender,
environment and migration in Bangladesh (co-authored).
