Parliaments during the Pandemic: A “Dual State” explanation of Bangladesh Jatya Sangsad

  

Parliaments during the Pandemic:

A “Dual State” explanation of Bangladesh Jatya Sangsad

M. Jashim Ali Chowdhury*

Raihan Rahman Rafid**

[Published in Bangladesh Journal of Law, Vol 18(1-2) 2020 pp 25-52; Published by - Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA), Dhaka, Bangladesh; For full-text of the article click: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353958250_Parliaments_during_the_Pandemic_A_Dual_State_Explanation_of_Bangladesh_Parliament_Jatya_Sangsad ]

Abstract

This article seeks to theorise the Parliament of Bangladesh (JatiyaSangsad)’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic in light of the normative traits of global parliamentary responses to the public health emergency.It is argued that while the pandemic has contributed to the executive aggrandizement in established and unstable democracies alike, it has irreversibly marginalised the legislatures in countries with “pre-existing conditions” like democratic decay, elected authoritarianism etc. This article adopts the “Dual State” thesis expounded by Csaba Győry and Nyasha Weinberg in relation to Hungary and uses it as a theoretical lens to look through the Bangladesh Parliament’s performance during the pandemic. It concludes that Bangladesh’s total neglect of parliament as an institution of relevance during the pandemic is relatable to the Hungarian or Georgian style “Dual State” approach to the crisis and this might end up normalising a perpetual marginalisation of the JatyaSangadas an institution of accountability.

*PhD Candidate (Parliament Studies), King’s College London, UK, Email: m.chowdhury@kcl.ac.uk.

**Associate, The Old Baily Chambers, Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Email: raihanrrahman@gmail.com.