Questioning the ‘Westminster’ Attribute of Bangladesh Jatya Sangsad
Nirmal Kumar Saha*
M.Jashim Ali Chowdhury**
The Journal of Law, Islamic University, Kushtia, Bangladesh
Vol 10 (Special) No 2, Volume Year: 2014-2015 (published in 2021) pp 209-231
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Abstract
The Westminster Parliamentary
System is both a tradition and a concept. As a tradition, it represents a loose
family of political jurisdictions inheriting their shared institutions and
characteristics from the British Parliament based in the Palace of Westminster.
As a concept, it is a majoritarian democracy where the majority
party harness all the powers and controls over legislation, governance and
policymaking. Minority, on the other hand, is assigned with the rule of
institutional opposition and opinion building against the ruling party
programs, policies and laws. At
independence, Bangladesh chose to carry the British legacy of the Westminster
parliamentary system. Whether the system as outlined in the 1972 constitution
was purely Westminsterial is not abundantly clear. The executive branch led by
the Prime Minister and Cabinet is drawn from the majority party in Parliament
and remains answerable to the Parliament. Like the Crown, the President
symbolises the ceremonial head of the state. However, the judiciary had an
American tune – a separate branch with a constitutionally secured tenure for
the judges and a power of judicial review. This study seeks to see how this ‘half-hearted’
blend of separation of power and dynastic party system in an avowedly
Westminster system undermined the legislative branch of state by substantially
affecting the ‘horizontal accountability of democratic intuitions and ‘vertical
accountability of the rulers to the ruled. Assessing the Bangladesh
parliament’s mandate and performance as a law-making,
accountability and accountable body, the paper explains how it fails the core
majoritarian values expected of a typical Westminster parliament. As an
incremental response to the deeply rooted institutional and cultural problems
surrounding the legislative branch of the Republic, some strategic reforms are
needed.
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