Publication: Economic Reforms, Growth, and Governance: The Political Economy Aspects of Bangladesh's Development Surprise
Date
2008
ISSN
Published
2008
Author(s)
Mahmud, Wahiduddin
Ahmed, Sadiq
Mahajan, Sandeep
Abstract
Bangladesh has in recent decades
achieved reasonably rapid economic growth and significant
progress in social development indicators despite many
impediments: the desperate initial conditions after gaining
independence, lack of resources, natural disasters,
widespread corruption, and a record of systemic governance
failure. By identifying the sources of growth stimulus and
the drivers of social transformation, the paper addresses
what it calls Bangladesh's development surprise. The
policy-making process is analyzed as the outcome of
incentives created by patronage politics as opposed to the
compulsion for the government to play an effective
developmental role. The paper examines the governance-growth
nexus as affecting the pace and quality of growth and its
inclusiveness. If the governance environment has been barely
adequate to cope with an economy breaking out of stagnation
and extreme poverty, it increasingly may prove a barrier to
putting the economy firmly on a path of modernization and
global integration. Bangladesh's experience also shows
that it is possible to make rapid initial progress in many
social development indicators by creating awareness through
successful social mobilization campaigns and by reaping the
gains from affordable low-cost solutions. Further progress,
however, will require increased public social spending and
improved quality of public service delivery.
Citation
“Mahmud, Wahiduddin; Ahmed, Sadiq; Mahajan, Sandeep. 2008. Economic Reforms, Growth, and Governance: The Political Economy Aspects of Bangladesh's Development Surprise. Commission on Growth and Development Working Paper;No. 22. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28037 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”