Abstract The authority of political leaders in Bangladesh rests on diverse qualities, not least of which are the muscle and finance they can mobilize, and the relationships they can craft with senior party members. These are utilized to confront rivals both within and outside their own party. In some instances, the intensity of intra-party competition can be so severe that a further quality emerges: the capacity to find allies among enemies. Building local inter-party alliances can bolster the authority of politicians, yet be to the detriment of party coherence. This argument is developed through an analysis of mayoral and parliamentary elections held in the past decade in a small Bangladeshi city, where a ruling party member of parliament (MP) and opposition mayor appear to have developed such a relationship. This has thwarted the electoral ambitions of their fellow party members and has posed a serious challenge to party discipline. While political competition is often seen as being either inter- or intra-party, here it is focused around inter-party alliances. This portrayal suggests we need to give greater emphasis to the decentralized and local character that political authority can take in Bangladesh.
This chapter examines the linkages and hierarchy of Bangladesh&s;s local governments. It focuses on the structure as of the mid-1980s, and considers how the organization of local governments was changed in order to achieve greater decentralization. The chapter reviews the structure of the administrative system and then the structure of local governments. The structure of local government in Bangladesh is complex, largely because of the shared responsibility between central and local governments for administering and financing different public sector functions. Bangladesh&s;s local government hierarchy is at least as complex as its administrative structure. Local government has a long history on the South Asian subcontinent. Local governments in urban areas function in a manner similar to the union parishads in rural areas. Each paurashava is divided into wards for the election of commissioners and there are a set number of commissioners prescribed in the Ordinance.