Session 4: TOWARDS A JUST SOCIETY

Tuesday, Dec 7, 2021 | 8:00pm – 9:45pm | Bangladesh Time (GMT+6)

Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman
Founder-Chair, Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC)

Paper Title – Democratizing the ‘middle income’ dream: The coming challenge for Bangladesh at 50

Abstract:

At independence, the dominant concern of citizens and observers alike was about the economic future of the country. Five decades later, a poverty-stricken, disaster-prone vulnerable economy has confounded observers at home and abroad alike in scripting a remarkable story of economic transformation and resilience. The achievements came neither overnight nor by the efforts of any single quarter. But the change has been real and the country today has legitimately embraced a higher-level aspiration of middle-income status within the coming decade.

Progress in economic development, however, has not been mirrored in progress in political development. At independence, politics had seemed the lesser challenge. In a twist of irony, today it is deficits in political development that are gnawing at the foundational dream of an inclusive, humane society. Significant erosion in the participatory content of the democratic process has negatively impacted efficiency of both economic management and political governance.

With Covid-19 upending poverty reduction efforts and emergence of the ‘new poor’, politics and economics are coming together to pose a new challenge for Bangladesh at 50. Will a ‘middle income’ aspiration be enough or must focus shift to the specifics of the paths being followed to assess whether the dream will touch the lives of the majority? Will democratizing the ‘middle income’ dream itself become the new challenge for Bangladesh at 50?