Absence of democracy not only plagues bureaucracy and institutions with corruption but also destroys the whole state machinery and political system. Consequently, instruments of the state, such as independent judiciary, independent election commission, human rights commission, anti-corruption commission, independent police, independent media etc. which are essential for checks and balances in the state, become crippled.

Corruption is the biggest problem in Bangladesh. It is eroding the economy in many ways. For example, corrupt politicians and bureaucrats allocate state funds for projects which give them an opportunity of misappropriation, corruption causes capital flight, it makes economic activities slow, it prevents the trickle-down process, it leads money market and capital market to sickness. It is the absence of democracy which appears in the form of corruption— nothing or nobody can avert this manifestation.

Only in a purely democratic environment, it is possible to tackle corruption because politicians have to be accountable for everything in such an environment. If that is the case, ministers or MPs won’t collude with bureaucrats when the latter plans to ask citizens for bribes for a service or deprives anybody of any opportunity. It is the collusion between politicians and bureaucrats, which generates corruption, but if MPs don’t need people’s mandates (when elections are unfair), she/he won’t even have a sense of accountability.

Why Amartya Sen doesn’t support the communist system is the........

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