ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a continuation and updating of an analysis published in 2010, which endeavored to explain the dysfunctional political system of the 1991–2007 period and the caretaker regime of 2007–2008. By coincidence, Freedom House started compiling its "Freedom in the World" index in 1972, just after Bangladesh had achieved its independence in December 1971, so it is possible to chart the country's democratization trajectory virtually from its beginning. For Bangladesh over the last two decades, homeostasis has consisted of a volatile two-party system which has drawn a large portion of society and bureaucracy into its maelstrom, fueled massive corruption and disrupted the economy, but which has nonetheless persisted, resisting all attempts to change it. The two major parties have resumed their duet of excluding the opposition from any meaningful role on the one side and combining parliamentary boycotts with civic disruption on the other side.
