ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the roles of institutional changes and the media in paving the way for a transformation of Bangladesh's system of governance into an autocracy. Among the institutional changes, it examines the decision to abolish the caretaker system which had previously acted as a guardrail against large-scale fraud in elections, as well as the persecution of opposition leaders and activists and the influence of state institutions through legal and extralegal measures since 2010. The chapter also examines the process of creating a pliant mediascape through draconian laws (including the Digital Security Act 2018) on the one hand, while coopting media through buying off existing media and providing licenses to supporters of the regime on the other.
