Governance in its various dimensions to make a serious dent into poverty and support economic growth is crucial for a country like Bangladesh. It is generally agreed that weak governance poses a major challenge not only to make further gains in development but also sustain economic growth achieved so far.
Against the backdrop, M Adil Khan’s latest book shed lights on the contribution made by the seven governing periods in transforming Bangladesh from an impoverished country into a vibrant nation with full optimism to achieve the current developing country status.
The author, however, argues that the quality of governance during the study period remained at a low level both in terms political governance and institutional functioning. But now a combination of external and internal factors is impacting on the country’s growth prospects if timely corrective measures are not taken to improve the functioning and efficiency of the governing system.
The book, Bangladesh’s Seven Governing Periods, 1972-2022 Accomplishments: Constants of Bad Governance and Much-needed Resets, was published in 2023. It raises issues from the political economy perspective. The author tries to provide a historical perspective to the current political and economic situation in Bangladesh focusing on its accomplishments, issues relating to governance and what the author describes as “much needed rests”.
It is to be noted that the writer is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland and former Chief of Socio-Economic Governance and Management Branch of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) at the UN Secretariat, New York, USA.
The author relies on published academic and journalistic sources and as well as his own personal knowledge and understanding of the economy.
The book’s main message is that Bangladesh needs a “reset agenda” given weaknesses in governance which the author termed as the “constants of bad governance” or CoBGs over the study period. The reset agenda is to be designed “to pursue a development strategy that is inclusive and sustainable – a strategy that guarantees economic growth with equity, social justice, and environmental sustainability, and a government that operates in the conditions of freedom and democracy”.
The book contains ten chapters. Chapter 1, provides the outline of the book including delineating the seven governing periods and providing his perspectives on weaknesses in governance and used the mathematical term “constants” which in an estimating equation remain fixed (while only variables change) over time to denote how weaknesses in governance have occurred and re-occurred and accumulated over time, thus “compounding the pre-existing challenges”. Chapters 2 -8 cover seven governing periods as defined in Chapter 1 providing his own detailed analysis of each of the seven governing periods incorporating each of the period’s characteristics, policy orientation and corresponding actions and outcomes. Chapter 9 highlighted the accomplishments the country achieved and failures over the whole study period. Finally, Chapter 10 attempts to give a very quick snapshot of the study period by saying that governance failures accumulated over time have turned Bangladesh into what the author calls a “Praetorian” society. Then, the author moves on to provide what he describes as the “agenda of actions for resets” to enable the country from backsliding and to move forward.
Chapter 1 provides a very brief outline tracing the history of the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent state in 1971. Over half a century since independence, according to the author, the country has gone through seven governing periods with varied governing styles yielding varied outcomes. The author also points out that the book is neither an academic work nor a historiographic discourse covering the five decades, but more like a long op-ed. He does not expect universal agreement on the views expressed or inferences drawn in the book. But he expects the book would help to initiate discussions and debates to develop a more objective analysis of Bangladesh’s governance and development characteristics.
Chapters 2-8 cover seven governing periods as defined in the first chapter providing the author’s own detailed analysis of each of the seven governing periods. The quality of governance makes a difference. It determines the developmental trajectories of states and nations, as well as the everyday lives of its citizens, in particular, alleviating poverty .The book encapsulates continuing governance failures in the country by introducing the term the “Constants of Bad Governance”.
Overall, the problem of governance across the seven governance period was the overriding aspect of the country to pursue and sustain economic growth and development. During this half a century period Bangladesh, the eighth most populous country in the world has emerged both as a much praised model of development and a significant regional economy, yet continues to be marked by continuing weaknesses in governance.
The reasons for weaknesses in governance are multi-dimensional in nature. It can be argued that political institutions have become less than well-functioning because of imperfections in political interactions between competing political interests in the country making the political environment inefficient for a well-functioning political system. It also undermines the basic aspects of economic and social stability.
Chapter 9 provides a summary of the study period by highlighting Bangladesh’s economic achievements but also his concerns for the future. The author summarises the study period by expressing the view that “during the past five decades, Bangladesh moved one step forward and two steps backward”, most likely indicating that the state of governance system in the country has not only been weak but deteriorating as well.
In the last chapter, the author closes with a list of reset agenda items to ensure that things do not get from bad to worse. He also alludes to the history of the emergence of Bangladesh as a country to emphasise the need to bond all people together through an inclusive social and cultural thread to enable the country to evolve into a nation. He then goes on to say that the government must pursue a development strategy that is inclusive and sustainable and a government that operates in conditions of freedom and democracy.
Then the author goes on to say that these resets are necessary for “Bangladesh to move forward as a rule-based, corruption-free and democratically governed country”. It can be argued that the author is implicitly making a call for future-readying the country and its economy and to build up or upgrade necessary institutional and administrative capabilities using more innovative and modern approach.
The book provides a reasonably well thought out perspective to understand Bangladesh as a country and as an economy as evolved during the period under study highlighting the country’s achievements as well as the challenges it faced, in particular of governance weaknesses. The author provides evidence to support the main arguments laid out in the book. As such the book will enable us to stimulate a discourse on governance weaknesses and the way out of it. The book, therefore, emphasises an obvious need to reconfigure the country’s political landscape to further strengthen the drive towards economic and social progress. The political economy process can make some contribution in this effort.
I believe the book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the Bangladesh economy, politics and society for over half a century. In this context the book remains an important reading. One may disagree with certain aspects of the author’s explanations, perspectives, terminologies used and conclusions drawn. Also, we may have to look at the political economy process to make some sense of the reset agenda as outlined in the book to enable us to understand how effective this agenda could be. Nonetheless, the book can be a reference point for debate over articulating responses to the political and economic challenges currently facing Bangladesh. While footnotes have been used extensively at the end of each chapter, inclusion of a list of references and a book index would have improved the format of the book.