Members of Parliament in Bangladesh

Abstract

This article, based on data collected from a large sample of MPs in 1972 and 1974, sketches a demographic and class profile of Parliamentarians in Bangladesh and analyzes their perception of their roles outside the Parliament. Data on the Parliamentarians' socioeconomic and political backgrounds show that the majority of the MPs were on the whole young, educated, and members of the middle class. Moreover, the trend is toward more MPs in these groups and toward members with less experience in parliamentary politics. The Parliamentarians identified more strongly with the party than with the Parliament. They also took their role outside the Parliament more seriously than their role inside; they spent most of their time in procuring services from the government for their major constituents, which led them to a conflict situation with the bureaucracy. The dislike and the noncooperation between the MPs and the bureaucracy was a major factor behind the administrative inefficiency in the three years following the birth of Bangladesh, which in its turn influenced the downfall of the parliamentary system of government in this new nation.