The Role of Jatiya Sangsad in the Democratization Process of Bangladesh (1991-2013)

Abstract

The thesis is a summary of a research work that has investigated, scrutinized and inquired into the role of Jatiya Sangsad in the democratization process of Bangladesh of the period spanning from 1991 to 2013. The focus of this thesis is on the law-making process of the Jatiya Sangsad and how participation of people’s representatives contributes to the democratization process of Bangladesh. Reviewing the process of law-making from 1991 to 2013, I have observed that the JS has exercised only marginal participation of MPs in making laws. In addition, the thesis further attempted to establish the three specific hypotheses. First, although the parliament (or JS) is supposed to play a central role for law-making through participation of the people’s representatives, it has hardly done so. Second, will of the political leaders (party chief and the chief executive) have significantly dominated the law-making in the parliament or Jatiya Sangsad. Third, instead of cooperative and competitive relationship between the ruling and the opposition parties, confrontational relationship has resulted in most of the cases due to the ‘one-party’ dominant participation in the parliament or Jatiya Sangsad. However, JS’s role in most of the cases was only limited to give final approval to the laws. Based on the primary and secondary data sources, it may be claimed that the theoretical part supporting the thesis along with the information collected for this research added a new contribution to the knowledge. The primary source consists of a number of in-depth interviews. The secondary source includes parliamentary proceedings, documents of constitutional amendments and research publications, such as books, unpublished Ph. D. theses, articles and internet. I have made content analyses of the data collected from the primary and secondary sources.