Decentralization in Bangladesh: The Past, Present and Future

The evolution theory of path dependence suggests that history matters and so do the institutions. It says that the longer an institution has been in place, the more resilient it grows and, therefore, less likely to change. Given sufficient time and self-reinforcing mechanisms and processes, an organizational and institutional path develops that becomes highly resistant to change. One school of thought says as the path benefits those who created it, the same actors can not change it and thus an ‘exogenous shock’ – pressure from outside the process is needed. The other school of thought says either a tremendous internal or an external pressure can change the path. This study uses these propositions to explain the past, the present and the future trajectories of decentralization in Bangladesh. The paper analyses the power relations between local government institutions (LGIs) and central government (CG). It argues that these relations are highly unequal and biased towards the center as a result from the LGIs genesis back in colonial regime to date. Hence, the form of decentralization in Bangladesh was mostly de-concentration, which is consistent with the path of decentralization persuaded by Pakistan regime and that of the regimes in independent Bangladesh in the 1970s because this process gave them political dividends. A variety of successive governments have tinkered with the set up of decentralisation, all of them marked by a tendency of political use of LG institutions. This has resulted in policy discontinuity which made the LGIs vulnerable and put at the margin of the power game. Interestingly, the military government in the 1980s broke the path and introduced political devolution. However, those promising reforms could not be sustained due to politico-bureaucratic vested interests. The democratic government in the early 1990s set in motion a process of recentralization by pursuing once more de-concentrated decentralization. In 2007, an interim care-taker government initiated efforts of making the institutions free from central politico-bureaucratic control, but this too could not be sustained. Subsequently, much of the efforts taken by the government have been reverted by the present government. The study takes the growing demand of decentralization into consideration. It concludes that a stronger internal demand together with support from development partners could break the path in future.