Civil society and democracy in Bangladesh

Abstract

It was a strong, concerted civil society resistance to the military Ershad regime that set the stage for the emergence of democracy in Bangladesh. The country's ethics and value-based cultural and literary traditions too have been a rallying point. In general, though, civil society groups in the country are divided. Ironically, the divisions got exacerbated after the restoration of democracy in 1991. It was then, when their mentor political parties got aligned into government and opposition camps, that these groups lost vibrancy and cohesion. Opposition-linked civil society groups, under these circumstances, had to bear the brunt of governmental high-handedness. Such a civil society-State relationship is not democracy-friendly.