IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jdevst/v53y2017i10p1545-1567.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Organising and Representing the Poor in a Clientelistic Democracy: the Decline of Radical NGOs in Bangladesh

Author

Listed:
  • David Lewis

Abstract

This paper examines the political role of radical development NGOs that emerged in Bangladesh to challenge the marginalisation of subordinate groups and strengthen democratic processes. After briefly introducing the political context of Bangladesh and its NGOs, the paper identifies and defines a radical NGO sub-sector. It then reviews the activities of these organisations during the pre-1990 military government era and during the subsequent period of electoral democracy. Some important achievements are identified, but also many failures that have led to decline, leaving behind an NGO sector dominated by credit and service delivery organisations. The paper then explains this decline by focusing on three inter-related factors: (i) an institutional setting dominated by clientelistic structures that have undermined efforts to build horizontal alliances among excluded groups in civil society, or links between NGOs and political parties; (ii) a shift in donor support from mobilisation to market-based service delivery agencies; and (iii) internal structures that have generated legitimacy and accountability problems by encouraging elite capture, co-option and personalised leadership in the radical sub-sector. It concludes with some brief reflections on the main implications of these failures.

Suggested Citation

  • David Lewis, 2017. "Organising and Representing the Poor in a Clientelistic Democracy: the Decline of Radical NGOs in Bangladesh," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(10), pages 1545-1567, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:53:y:2017:i:10:p:1545-1567
    DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2017.1279732
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00220388.2017.1279732
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00220388.2017.1279732?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michels, Robert, 1915. "Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number michels1915.
    2. Hossain, Naomi, 2017. "The Aid Lab: Understanding Bangladesh's Unexpected Success," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198785507, Decembrie.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Paul Chaney, 2017. "Limited Gains, Enduring Violations," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 12(3), pages 286-307, December.
    2. Mathilde Maitrot, 2017. "Re-visiting microfinance entrepreneurship in Bangladesh: Can losers be choosers?," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 192017, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    3. Md. Kamal Uddin, 2023. "NGOs' approach to human rights and the challenges in Bangladesh," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 41(3), May.
    4. Nicola Banks & Tony Brockington, 2019. "Mapping the UK’s development NGOs: income, geography and contributions to international development," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 352019, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    5. Viviane Frings‐Hessami & Gillian Oliver, 2022. "Clashes of cultures in an international aid organisation: Information cultures, languages and the use of information systems," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(7), pages 1414-1429, October.
    6. Rachel S. Robinson & Jennifer N. Brass & Andrew Shermeyer & Nichole Grossman, 2024. "Reported effects of non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) in health and education service provision: The role of NGO –government relations and other factors," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 42(1), January.
    7. Mathilde Maîtrot, 2022. "The Moral Economy of Microfinance in Rural Bangladesh: Dharma, Gender and Social Change," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 53(2), pages 335-355, March.
    8. Antonio Sianes & Rocío Vela-Jiménez, 2020. "Can Differing Opinions Hinder Partnerships for the Localization of the Sustainable Development Goals? Evidence from Marginalized Urban Areas in Andalusia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-19, July.
    9. Saidur Rahman & Farhat Tasnim, 2023. "The role of NGOs in ensuring local governance in Bangladesh: from the perception of other actors of governance," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 1007-1034, September.
    10. Lentz, Erin C., 2018. "Complicating narratives of women’s food and nutrition insecurity: Domestic violence in rural Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 271-280.

    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. Alvarez, Jose L. & Maza, Carmelo, 2000. "Consumption of management publications, The," IESE Research Papers D/420, IESE Business School.
    2. Paul Vertier, 2018. "The democratic challenges of electoral representation and populism : an empirical approach [Les défis démocratiques de la représentation électorale et du populisme : une approche empirique]," SciencePo Working papers Main tel-03419534, HAL.
    3. Drew L. Harris & Teresa M. Twomey, 2019. "Economic Democracy: The Role of Privilege in Advancing Civilization," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 78(5), pages 1229-1249, November.
    4. Tom Goodfellow, 2017. "‘Double Capture’ and De-Democratisation: Interest Group Politics and Uganda’s ‘Transport Mafia’," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(10), pages 1568-1583, October.
    5. Helios Herrera & César Martinelli, 2013. "Oligarchy, democracy, and state capacity," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 52(1), pages 165-186, January.
    6. Hart E. Posen & Dirk Martignoni & Daniel A. Levinthal, 2013. "E Pluribus Unum: Organizational Size and the Efficacy of Learning," DRUID Working Papers 13-09, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    7. Gavin Capps, 2015. "Labour in the time of platinum," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(146), pages 497-507, October.
    8. Riccardo Pelizzo, 2018. "Democracy and Governance," Research Africa Network Working Papers 18/004, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    9. Pedro Cisneros-Velarde & Francesco Bullo, 2021. "A network formation game for the emergence of hierarchies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(8), pages 1-26, August.
    10. Wahiduddin Mahmud, 2020. "Socio-Economic Progress with Poor Governance: How are Amartya Sen’s Thoughts Relevant for Contemporary Bangladesh?," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 14(3), pages 359-371, December.
    11. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/7omfps2eu39dnavoo1o6arafcr is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Mathilde Maîtrot & Geof Wood & Joe Devine, 2021. "Understanding resilience: Lessons from lived experiences of extreme poverty in Bangladesh," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 39(6), pages 894-910, November.
    13. Kartik Misra, 2019. "Accumulation by Dispossession and Electoral Democracies : An Analysis of Land Acquisition for Special Economic Zones in India," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2019-16, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    14. John Godard, 2009. "The Exceptional Decline of the American Labor Movement," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 63(1), pages 82-108, October.
    15. Stéphane Jaumier, 2016. "Preventing chiefs from being chiefs: An ethnography of a co-operative sheet-metal factory," Post-Print hal-01366601, HAL.
    16. Emilie Bourlier-Bargues & Jean-Pascal Gond & Bertrand Valiorgue, 2022. "Fast and spurious: How executives capture governance structures to prevent cooperativization," Post-Print hal-03828145, HAL.
    17. Jane PARKER & Ozan ALAKAVUKLAR, 2023. "Union collective action, social movement unionism and worker freedom in New Zealand," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 162(1), pages 147-170, March.
    18. Katarzyna Jezierska, 2020. "Three Types of Denial: Think Tanks as a Reluctant Civil Society Elite," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(3), pages 152-161.
    19. Büthe, Tim & Morgan, Stephen, 2015. "Antitrust Enforcement and Foreign Competition: Special Interest Theory Reconsidered," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205607, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Wiltermuth, Scott S. & Raj, Medha & Wood, Adam, 2018. "How perceived power influences the consequences of dominance expressions in negotiations," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 14-30.
    21. Katy Fox-Hodess, 2020. "Building Labour Internationalism ‘from Below’: Lessons from the International Dockworkers Council’s European Working Group," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(1), pages 91-108, February.

    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:taf:jdevst:v:53:y:2017:i:10:p:1545-1567. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FJDS20 .

    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.