On the Sustainability of Bangladesh Paradox

Abstract

Is the Bangladesh Paradox Sustainable? The Institutional Diagnostic Projectby Selim Raihan, François Bourguignon, Umar Salam (Eds.)(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2023). Is the Bangladesh Paradox Sustainable? is an edited volume that queries the so-called ‘Bangladesh paradox’, referring to how the country enjoys the high level of economic growth despite structural problems such bad governance. Edited by Selim Raihan, François Bourguignon, and Umar Salam, the book undertakes a systematic institutional analysis of Bangladesh’s development trajectory. At its core, the volume grapples with a question that has puzzled development economists and political scientists for more than two decades: how has Bangladesh managed to achieve sustained economic growth and impressive improvements in social indicators while maintaining persistently weak governance and fragile political institutions? This Bangladesh paradox is not merely a puzzle of empirical curiosity but a serious challenge to dominant theories of political economy, since it suggests that under certain historical and political configurations, growth can emerge despite the absence of what are conventionally defined as ‘good’ institutions.