Bangladesh: From Militarized Politics to Politicized Military

Abstract

In December 1990, civil protests against the regime of President General Hossain Mohammad Ershad brought an end to almost 14 years of military rule in Bangladesh. In the two decades since Ershad’s downfall, there have been regular elections and power has alternated between the center-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by Khaleda Zia, the center-left Awami League (AL) of Sheikh Hasina Wajed, and various non-party caretaker governments (CTG).¹ Nevertheless, democracy failed to consolidate. Rather, the hyper-centralization of political authority under the Westminster-style parliamentary system and the zero-sum nature of Bangladeshi politics has left the country’s political system a fragile, foundationally weak democracy (Datta, 2004), or an ‘elective dictatorship’ (Cameron, Blanaru, & Burns, 2006; Croissant & Schächter, 2010). In addition, elite conflict and the political divide between BNP and AL, the rise of extremist Islamic forces in recent years, and the ‘hartal’ culture² of street politics and political violence have transformed politics into a zero-sum game (Islam, 2006).