Decentralized local government in Bangladesh: myth or reality?

The main objective of this paper is to examine the current status of the local government system of Bangladesh. The main question that was asked whether successive government of Bangladesh used the local government as a mechanism to strengthen their political power base in the name to decentralization or not? From the findings it has been found that the objectives for which the decentralized local government introduced, were not realized and the governments failed to keep their commitment towards grassroots democracy and to devolve power to the people at lower levels to manage their own affairs. It has also found that every successive government of Bangladesh has used the local government bodies to strengthen their own political base in the rural areas, ignoring the principles and importance of decentralization of power to the local level. Decentralization is a word that has been used by different people to mean a good many different things. But what do we see in practice? Experiments with local government that end in chaos and bankruptcy; 'decentralized' structures of administration that only act as a more effective tool for centralizing power; regional and district committees in which government officials make decisions while the local representatives sit silent; village councils where local people participate but have no resources to allocate. Philip Mawhood (1983).