Role of Civil Society in Democratic Consolidation Process in Bangladesh

It is the most frequently raised question in academic texts, studies, seminars, and politics or in every field of the country, whether civil society organizations (CSOs) can play a role in creating a consolidated democracy. Many studies suggest that CSOs can play a role in the democratic consolidation process. This study also finds that the CSOs are essential players in democratic contribution in the context of Bangladesh, because they deal with many of the underlying drivers of consolidation by promoting economic development, alleviating poverty, fighting against corruption, advocating policy change, nurturing democratic values, bringing unity among social discontinuity, contributing to governance, and achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by delivering their services. Thus, the CSOs of Bangladesh, on the one hand, are known as the key actors in ensuring democratic consolidation, but on the other, they are also unable to play a role in democratic contribution in the real sense due to some major challenges. Since in Bangladesh the political parties penetrate and control the CSOs and most of the CSOs are Western-based and politicized and so they can hardly act independently. And as a result, the common desire of the people in general for democratic consolidation remains unfulfilled. This chapter revealed that the democracy could be fully consolidated in Bangladesh only when the CSOs could do work freely with all the segments of the government overcoming all the challenges in their path towards democracy.