Table of ContentsIs Bangladesh a Democratic Nation?Civil Rights and FreedomsPolitical RightsConclusionOrigin. Bangladesh is the product of three successive partitions. The first partition took place in 1905 during the British colonial period, called East Bengal to appease the Bengali-speaking Muslims who were lagging behind the majority Hindu population in terms of socio-economic development. This act was also considered part of the colonial doctrine of “divide and rule”. The second partition took place in 1947, while granting independence to India, the British initially divided the country into India and Pakistan on the basis of Hindu and Muslim religion. Muslim-majority East Bengal, located in eastern India, was merged with Muslim-majority areas in the west and formed a new nation: Pakistan. The Pakistani army, backed by Islamists in Bengal, engaged in mass murder and rape to quell the wave of civil disobedience that formed following the annulment of the 1970 election results by the military junta, who was not willing to cede power to Prime Minister-designate Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Bengal. This refusal to cede power culminated in the rise of the Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement, followed by genocide by the West Pakistani military junta. This genocide led to the Indo-Pakistani War in 1971 and ended with the surrender of Pakistan in Dhaka, the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation, and recognition by the United Nations as a sovereign nation. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Defining Democracy: Robert Dahl listed eight institutional guarantees as essential to democracy which Stephen Orvis (page 109) termed liberal democracy. Polyarchy is another name coined by Dahl for approximations of true democracy in the real world. He saw polyarchy as an unattainable ideal-type regime in which governments would be entirely responsive to the will of their citizens. Dahl's empirical theory of polyarchy became his normative theory of democracy (Krouse, 1982). Dahl's eight minimum requirements of political democracy: freedom to form and join an organization, freedom of speech, right to vote, broad eligibility for public office, right of political leaders to compete for support and votes, free and fair elections, the availability of alternative sources of information, and the institutions responsible for making government policies depend on votes and other expressions of preferences. Civil liberties coupled with political rights are essential elements of liberal democracy. Likewise, the existence of a democratic political culture is essential for a legitimate, functional and sustainable democracy. Is Bangladesh a democratic nation? The constitution of Bangladesh established a Westminster-style unitary secular parliamentary republic with universal suffrage. The situations prevailing in Bangladesh are assessed according to the eight characteristics specified above by Dahl and attempt to define the state of democracy. These characteristics can be broadly classified into two segments: civil rights and political rights. Civil Rights and Freedoms Freedom to form and join an organization: Freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, and freedom of association are enshrined in the constitution. The right to organize public gatherings and meetings withother citizens is protected by Article 3. However, the government often prohibits gatherings of more than five people. Sometimes authorities arrest activists to disrupt protests. Unions. There are several legal obstacles to collective bargaining and the formation of unions. Several restrictions are placed on labor movements, including a minimum 30% membership requirement for factory-level union recognition, severe restrictions on the right to strike, union membership restricted to permanent members only, etc. Foreign donations 2016 (voluntary)Activities) Regulation Law, has made it difficult for NGOs that criticize the government on rights issues. NGOs are subject to harassment and surveillance and authorities have broad power to remove those who make “derogatory” remarks about the government. Freedom of Expression: Civil disobedience is manifested through non-violent protests, such as Hartal, Gherao, Dharna, Bandh (Rashiduzzaman, 1997). The government has used the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act to control students who use social media to express their freedom. The Dhaka Tribune newspaper reports that 2017 saw the highest number of violations, at 335, of which 70% targeted journalists. The frequency of purple attacks against secular bloggers, religious minorities, atheists, foreigners and intellectuals is increasing. Deadly terrorist attacks have been committed against minorities. During the publication of its 2018 World Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) expressed its concern about the persistence of violence against the media and the government's blatant inaction towards the perpetrators of this violence. gender, race. Free and fair elections. The legitimacy of any democratic government lies in the execution of a free and fair electoral process where all interested parties can stand as candidates and where all eligible voters can exercise their free will vote. Higher voter turnout rates contribute to the consolidation of emerging democracies and act as a check on elite power. The decline in electoral participation leads to the marginalization of citizens from democratic life and the entrenchment of social and economic inequalities which then harm democracy. Higher participation rates also mitigate the domination of democratic institutions by a few privileged groups and allow for increased participation of non-elite people in democratic institutions. Bangladesh has held ten national elections under different regimes with a normal turnout of 75-80%, except the last one held in 2014. The last election was boycotted by the opposition party BNP and the turnout rate participation was 50%. Of the ten national elections held so far, four were deemed free, fair and credible and held by the non-party interim government. The others were carried out by the ruling party and were not spared controversy and marred by allegations of manipulation. Broad eligibility for public office. The 350-member unicameral parliament (Jatiya Sangsad) is a mixed-majority system (a first-past-the-post system for 300 single-member parliamentary constituencies (SMDs) and 50 seats reserved for women distributed by proportional representation across elected party positions in parliament) . with a maximum duration of five years. Article 66 of the Constitution allows any citizen over the age of 25 to become an elected member of Parliament. The leader..