IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/inddev/v14y2020i3p359-371.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socio-Economic Progress with Poor Governance: How are Amartya Sen’s Thoughts Relevant for Contemporary Bangladesh?

Author

Listed:
  • Wahiduddin Mahmud

Abstract

The overriding concerns of Amartya Sen’s writings are about how to promote public action towards achieving an equitable and just society, which particularly addresses the needs of the underprivileged. While his ideas are of great relevance for all developing countries, this is more so for India and Bangladesh—the two countries that provide the socio-economic settings for much of his empirical works. Sen has praised the remarkable progress in many social development indicators that Bangladesh has achieved compared to India, despite having a much lower per capita income and suffering from the same, or even much worse, institutional and policy failures. In fact, the contradictions of Bangladesh lie in its impressive socio-economic progress achieved under extremely poor institutions of economic and political governance. By drawing upon Sen’s writings on issues ranging from human development and social inequalities to the concepts of freedom and “public reasoning†, this essay aims at understanding the factors underlying Bangladesh’s achievements and the challenges that lie ahead.

Suggested Citation

  • Wahiduddin Mahmud, 2020. "Socio-Economic Progress with Poor Governance: How are Amartya Sen’s Thoughts Relevant for Contemporary Bangladesh?," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 14(3), pages 359-371, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:inddev:v:14:y:2020:i:3:p:359-371
    DOI: 10.1177/0973703020968475
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0973703020968475
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0973703020968475?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kabeer, Naila & Mahmud, Simeen & Isaza Castro, Jairo G., 2012. "NGOs and the Political Empowerment of Poor People in Rural Bangladesh: Cultivating the Habits of Democracy?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 2044-2062.
    2. Wahiduddin Mahmud & Shahidur R. Khandker, 2012. "Seasonal Hunger and Public Policies : Evidence from Northwest Bangladesh," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 9373.
    3. Hossain, Naomi, 2017. "The Aid Lab: Understanding Bangladesh's Unexpected Success," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198785507.
    4. Sen, Amartya K, 1977. "Starvation and Exchange Entitlements: A General Approach and Its Application to the Great Bengal Famine," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 1(1), pages 33-59, March.
    5. Asadullah, M. Niaz & Savoia, Antonio & Mahmud, Wahiduddin, 2014. "Paths to Development: Is there a Bangladesh Surprise?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 138-154.
    6. Headey, Derek D., 2013. "Developmental Drivers of Nutritional Change: A Cross-Country Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 76-88.
    7. Azizur Rahman Khan, 2015. "The Economy of Bangladesh," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-54974-7, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mathilde Maîtrot & Geof Wood & Joe Devine, 2021. "Understanding resilience: Lessons from lived experiences of extreme poverty in Bangladesh," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 39(6), pages 894-910, November.
    2. Donato Romano & Silvio Traverso, 2020. "Disentangling the Impact of International Migration on Food and Nutrition Security of Left-Behind Households: Evidence from Bangladesh," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 32(4), pages 783-811, September.
    3. Lucy Scott, 2015. "Raising voice or giving assets? Reducing extreme poverty in an uncertain environment: A case study from Bangladesh," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 21315, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    4. David Carment & Yiagadeesen Samy, 2017. "Exiting the fragility trap: Rethinking our approach to the world's most fragile states," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-181, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Aiyar, Anaka & Cummins, Joseph R., 2021. "An age profile perspective on two puzzles in global child health: The Indian Enigma & economic growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    6. Khondoker Abdul Mottaleb & Dil Bahadur Rahut, 2019. "Impacts of Improved Infrastructure on Labor Allocation and Livelihoods: The Case of the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge, Bangladesh," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(4), pages 750-778, September.
    7. Abu S. Shonchoy, 2015. "Seasonal Migration and Microcredit During Agricultural Lean Seasons: Evidence from Northwest Bangladesh," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 53(1), pages 1-26, March.
    8. Derek Headey & David Stifel & Liangzhi You & Zhe Guo, 2018. "Remoteness, urbanization, and child nutrition in sub‐Saharan Africa," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(6), pages 765-775, November.
    9. Eric B. Schneider & Kota Ogasawara & Tim J. Cole, 2021. "Health Shocks, Recovery, and the First Thousand Days: The Effect of the Second World War on Height Growth in Japanese Children," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(4), pages 1075-1105, December.
    10. Tisdell, Clement A., 2006. "Effects of Markets on Poverty and Economic Inequality: Evolutionary and Ethical Perspectives," Social Economics, Policy and Development Working Papers 123543, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    11. Amjad, Rashid, 2017. "Remittances and Poverty: A Comparison of Bangladesh and Pakistan, 2000–2016," Bangladesh Development Studies, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), vol. 40(3-4), pages 75-104, Sep-Dec.
    12. Bimal Kanti Paul & Munshi Khaledur Rahman & Max Lu & Thomas W. Crawford, 2022. "Household Migration and Intentions for Future Migration in the Climate Change Vulnerable Lower Meghna Estuary of Coastal Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-17, April.
    13. Jing You & Katsushi S. Imai & Raghav Gaiha, 2014. "Decoding the Growth-Nutrition Nexus in China: Inequality, Uncertainty and Food Insecurity," Discussion Paper Series DP2014-28, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised Dec 2014.
    14. Dasgupta,Susmita & Huq,Mainul & Mustafa,Md. Golam & Sobhan,Md Istiak & Wheeler,David R., 2016. "Impact of climate change and aquatic salinization on fish habitats and poor communities in southwest coastal Bangladesh and Bangladesh Sundarbans," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7593, The World Bank.
    15. Basu, Karna & Wong, Maisy, 2015. "Evaluating seasonal food storage and credit programs in east Indonesia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 200-216.
    16. Mohamed, Toka S. & Elgammal, Mohammed M., 2023. "Credit risk in Islamic microfinance institutions: The role of women, groups, and rural borrowers," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    17. Bartoš, Vojtěch, 2021. "Seasonal scarcity and sharing norms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 303-316.
    18. Pérez-Mesa, David & Marrero, Gustavo A. & Darias-Curvo, Sara, 2021. "Child health inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa," MPRA Paper 108801, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Bühler, Dorothee & Hartje, Rebecca & Ulrike Grote, 2017. "Can household food security predict individual undernutrition? Evidence from Cambodia and Lao PDR," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-594, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    20. Ali, Amin Masud & Savoia, Antonio, 2023. "Decentralisation or patronage: What determines government's allocation of development spending in a unitary country? Evidence from Bangladesh," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:inddev:v:14:y:2020:i:3:p:359-371. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.