Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book, derived from a meeting in Dhaka in late 2011 to reflect upon change and development in Bangladesh, as well as from subsequent exchanges of the meeting's participants, offers this reality check to the normal governance discourse and wringing of hands. It shares a number of the conceptual and epistemological principles. The book attempts to depart from subtractionist and teleological accounts of how target societies like Bangladesh compare with ideal-typical model of Western liberal democracies. It explores resilient deep structures that give governance and politics in Bangladesh a coherent recognisable form, which have to be understood and are mediated by both internal and external actors. The book focuses on resilience of Bangladesh political system. It concerns the space for civil society activism in Bangladesh. The book explores level of support for democracy and whether it can accommodate different types of democratic regimes.