Parliamentary Control and Government Accountability in South Asia A Comparative Analysis of Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka Routledge Advances in South Asian Studies Series

Parliaments or legislatures are the keystone of democratic governance and they are critical in securing government accountability. This book presents a comparative analysis of the role of parliamentary committees in securing government accountability in the three largest and most important functioning democracies in South Asia: Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

The author compares the nascent democracy of Bangladesh with the stable and vibrant democratic system of India since its independence from the British in 1947 and Sri Lanka's longstanding and established democracy. He argues that in each country, parliament has been able to survive and perform the key parliamentary tasks of representation, legislation, oversight of the executive, conflict resolution and regime maintenance; concluding that parliamentary committees in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka do not perform as successfully as their counterparts in the Western world in controlling the government and holding it to account; however, their role in securing government accountability is not irrelevant.

Parliamentary Control and Government Accountability in South Asia will be a useful reference for studying third world parliaments in particular.

1. Introduction 2. Concepts, Theories and Methods 3. Parliaments and Accountability 4. Parliamentary Committees and Accountability 5. Parliamentary Control and Government Accountability in Bangladesh: The Role of Parliamentary Committees 6. Parliamentary Control and Government Accountability in India: The Role of Parliamentary Committees 7. Parliamentary Control and Government Accountability in Sri Lanka: The Role of Parliamentary Committees 8. Conclusion

Taiabur Rahman teaches Development Studies at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. His research interests are in the area of comparative politics, public administration and development studies.