Do these elections indicate a strategy to beat populist politics?
India witnessed a tumultuous time between May 1996 and October 1999 when coalition governments came and left in quick succession.
Bangladesh, since 2018, has been classified as a 'moderate autocracy.'
Since the middle of the 2000s, the world has witnessed a precipitous decline in democratic countries. After almost three decades of proliferation of democratic governance, described by Samuel Huntington as the Third Wave of democracy, the third reverse wave is sweeping the globe.
Bangladesh’s declining score in the EIU Democracy Index should provide an opportunity to discuss not only how EIU has rated Bangladesh, but also how others have characterised the country’s state of democracy—or lack thereof.
The absence of democratic behaviour is no longer hidden under the carpet.
If AL’s victory in the 2014 election was a hollow one, the 2024 victory in the making is nothing short of a Pyrrhic one—a victory which inflicts so much damage that it cannot be considered worthwhile.
As the country is heading towards an exercise that the incumbent is calling an election, it is imperative that we understand what is in the making.
The government’s decision to open educational institutions is a welcome development. All educational institutions have remained closed since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the promise of online education has failed miserably to deliver.
The Taliban has returned to power in Afghanistan. The spectacular fall of the US-backed government has caught everyone by surprise, although for years it was conventional wisdom that the war was lost in Afghanistan.
The founding anniversary of any organisation offers an opportunity for introspection; a centenary makes introspection an imperative. In its centenary, the important task Dhaka University faces is identifying its most significant achievement in the last hundred years.
To the average reader, Mohiuddin Ahmed is better known as the founder of University Press Limited, a reputed publishing house in the country.
The news that the Dhaka University authorities said they will take legal action if the university and/or its vice-chancellor, Prof Akhtaruzzaman, is mocked in social media is quite shocking.
"Last year, in February-March, a lot of experts had said that India will be the worst-affected country, there will be tsunami of cases.
An institution of higher learning in Pakistan had to cancel an academic conference about 1971.
Considering that there is no universally agreed definition of democracy, let alone an ideal democracy, any discussion on an ideal vision of democracy may well be deemed as a futile exercise.
Since the atrocious attack on the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters on Wednesday, the Congress has formally certified the victory of Joe Biden, some Cabinet members of the Trump administration have resigned, and some are considering invoking the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution and removing Donald Trump from office.
If one must identify the fundamental premise of the founding of independent Bangladesh, it is democracy—we can claim that democracy was the raison d’etre for establishing the country.
