Governance, rights and the demand for democracy: evidence from Bangladesh

This chapter explores the extent and nature of public support for democracy in Bangladesh by offering a detailed analysis of a nationwide Democracy Poll survey. Although the form of democracy that has evolved in Bangladesh is often portrayed as a core part of the governance problem rather than a solution, political attitudes surveys find that there is overwhelming public support for democracy. The data analysed in this chapter allows us to examine the level of support for democracy and question whether it can accommodate different types of democratic regimes. In particular the chapter extends a comparison between pragmatic and ethical attitudes to democracy, i.e. whether people view democracy as a means to an end and therefore are willing to sacrifice some aspects of democracy if it fails to deliver institutional benefits or whether they see democracy as an end in itself. The chapter concludes that the pragmatic approach to governance is something that the Bangladeshi urban middle class are more likely to consider.