IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/devchg/v53y2022i2p356-375.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Local Political Consolidation in Bangladesh: Power, Informality and Patronage

Author

Listed:
  • David Lewis
  • Abul Hossain

Abstract

During the past decade Bangladesh has shifted from a competitively clientelistic two‐party system towards a dominant‐party democracy. This article analyses how the ruling party has consolidated partisan political control at the local level. Using qualitative field data from 2004 and 2016, and drawing on a post‐structural analysis of the state, it shows how this extension of power has been achieved locally through interaction between formal and informal political initiatives. Four main types of informal activity are documented, through which the extent of local political competition has been reduced: circumvention, capture, brokerage and the creation of new organizations. These insights into the changing nature of Bangladesh's long‐standing partisan politics highlight how the state's capacity to deliver local services, allocate resources and maintain stability has been enhanced through the ruling party's control of local government structures, its elimination of political opposition, and its reshaping of local patronage arrangements.

Suggested Citation

  • David Lewis & Abul Hossain, 2022. "Local Political Consolidation in Bangladesh: Power, Informality and Patronage," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 53(2), pages 356-375, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:53:y:2022:i:2:p:356-375
    DOI: 10.1111/dech.12534
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12534
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/dech.12534?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. North,Douglass C. & Wallis,John Joseph & Webb,Steven B. & Weingast,Barry R. (ed.), 2013. "In the Shadow of Violence," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107684911.
    2. North,Douglass C. & Wallis,John Joseph & Webb,Steven B. & Weingast,Barry R. (ed.), 2013. "In the Shadow of Violence," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107014213.
    3. Kirsten Hackenbroch & Shahadat Hossain, 2012. "“The organised encroachment of the powerful”—Everyday practices of public space and water supply in Dhaka, Bangladesh," Planning Theory & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 397-420.
    4. Hossain, Naomi, 2017. "The Aid Lab: Understanding Bangladesh's Unexpected Success," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198785507.
    5. Diana Mitlin, 2014. "Politics, informality and clientelism – exploring a pro-poor urban politics," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-034-14, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    6. North, Douglass C. & Wallis, John Joseph & Webb, Steven B. & Weingast, Barry R., 2007. "Limited access orders in the developing world :a new approach to the problems of development," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4359, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Md. Ashiqur Rahman, 2018. "Governance matters: climate change, corruption, and livelihoods in Bangladesh," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 147(1), pages 313-326, March.
    2. Mushtaq H. Khan, 2018. "Institutions and Asia's development: The role of norms and organizational power," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-132, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Mushtaq H. Khan, 2014. "Aid and Governance in Vulnerable States," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 656(1), pages 59-78, November.
    4. Mushtaq Khan, 2018. "Institutions and Asia’s development: The role of norms and organizational power," WIDER Working Paper Series 132, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Tomasz Legiędź, 2016. "Transformacja ekonomiczna i polityczna na Tajwanie," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 6, pages 115-135.
    6. David Jackman, 2019. "Violent Intermediaries and Political Order in Bangladesh," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(4), pages 705-723, September.
    7. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2020. "Introduction: a symposium on the predatory state," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 233-242, March.
    8. Wegner, Gerhard, 2013. "Capitalist transformation without political participation: German capitalism in the first half of the 19th century," Freiburg Discussion Papers on Constitutional Economics 13/14, Walter Eucken Institut e.V..
    9. John Wallis, 2015. "Rules, Organizations, and Governments," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 43(1), pages 69-86, March.
    10. Gerard Clarke, 2021. "“Thinking and Working Politically”: The case of donor‐supported reform coalitions in the Philippines," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 39(3), pages 398-418, May.
    11. Steven Webb, 2015. "Becoming an open democratic capitalist society: a two-century historical perspective on Germany’s evolving political economy," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 19-37, March.
    12. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2017. "A critical survey of the resource curse literature through the appropriability lens," CEPN Working Papers 2017-14, Centre d'Economie de l'Université de Paris Nord.
    13. Haass, Felix & Ottmann, Martin, 2017. "Profits from Peace: The Political Economy of Power-Sharing and Corruption," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 60-74.
    14. Gwendoline Promsopha & Antoine Vion, 2017. "Thailand's 'limited order trap' : a critical application of North, Wallis and Weingast," Post-Print hal-01612052, HAL.
    15. Erik Grimmer-Solem, 2015. "The mature limited access order at the doorstep: Imperial Germany and contemporary China in transition," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 103-120, March.
    16. Tomasz Legiedz, 2020. "Economic policy for development and the new institutional economics," Catallaxy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 5(2), pages 61-73, December.
    17. Chen, Shuo & Fan, Xinyu, 2021. "Warcraft: The legitimacy building of usurpers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 409-431.
    18. Morgan, Horatio M., 2013. "Financial Development and Economic Growth: New Lessons from Small Open Economies," MPRA Paper 49842, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Gerhard Wegner, 2015. "Capitalist transformation without political participation: German capitalism in the first half of the nineteenth century," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 61-86, March.
    20. Robert Cameron & Brian Levy, 2016. "The potential and limits of performance management: Improving basic education in the Western Cape," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-062-16, GDI, The University of Manchester.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:53:y:2022:i:2:p:356-375. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0012-155X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.