The politics of food security in Bangladesh

Abstract

This thesis examines the political and economic dimensions of food security in Bangladesh and assesses the role of the state in meeting the challenges of food security. The key concern, which is at the heart of this study, is to explore how the Bangladesh state responds when its people go hungry. I argue that, because Bangladesh is a food-insecure, under-resourced, and poorly-governed country, it is imperative to critically examine the root causes of food insecurity and, in particular, the state s role in ensuring food security. However, there are no detailed empirical studies which examine the Bangladesh state s role by providing an historical-political analysis: conventional approaches are primarily concerned with a partial diagnosis of the economic or nutritional problems of food security. This thesis provides a detailed picture of the missing dimensions of stateness that include the strength of institutions, the scope of state functions, and other important attributes. In doing so, it uses the concept of neopatrimonialism to explore the political system of Bangladesh. The analysis utilizes five concepts rent-seeking, public corruption, partial reform syndrome , weak state capacity , and poor governance as an analytical framework. A major concern of this thesis is to explicate the various impediments to food security in Bangladesh, ranging all the way from the process of policy formulation to their implementation mechanisms.

The thesis is comprised of two sections. The first section demonstrates that the Bangladesh state exhibits neopatrimonial tendencies which systematically weaken state capacity, promote patronage politics and result in poor governance; and as a result, the state fails to plan and implement sound policies. The second section shows that the five key characteristics of a neopatrimonial state employed as an analytical framework are deeply entrenched in the state s responses, its activities, and the ways in which it interacts with the food and agriculture market, agricultural development strategies and activities, farming and non-farming subsidies, and the public food distribution system of Bangladesh. This thesis unpacks the structural weaknesses of the state s institutional capacity in promoting food security and, in the process, argues that the root cause of food insecurity is deeply embedded in the nature of the Bangladesh state itself, and the political institutions that link the state and society.