Title: Parliamentary committees and parliamentary government in Bangladesh
Abstract: Committees are ubiquitous. They are found in all types of parliaments; old or new, large or small. The Jatiya Sangsad , as the parliament is called in Bangladesh, is no exception. However, compared with their predecessors, the committees set up in recent years, especially since the restoration of the parliamentary system in 1991, have acquired a special significance; in particular, they are more representative in partisan composition and have relatively better scope to assert their authority. The extent to which they have succeeded in ensuring responsible government behaviour and redressing the imbalance between the executive and the parliament has not yet been ascertained. This article examines the patterns and performance of parliamentary committees in Bangladesh. It explores a number of issues such as the partisan composition of committees, their nature of activism, the behavioural orientation of their members, and their scope to influence government policies. The evidence presented in this paper clearly shows that the committees set up by recent parliaments have fared far better than their predecessors in almost every function, including scrutinising legislation and exercising oversight over executive departments. They are, however, yet to emerge as an important site of policy-making and as scrutineer of government policies. This paper identifies three sets of factors - structural/procedural, political, and behavioural - that tend to limit the influence of committees.
Publication Year: 2001
Publication Date: 2001-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 14
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