Institutional Dimension to Party Conflict in Bangladesh

The conventional wisdom regarding the sources of inter-party conflict in Bangladesh mainly concentrate on bitter enmity and culture of confrontational politics between two rival political parties namely Awami League (AL) and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). What is important to study is the institutional factor to party conflict- the dimension which is not widely discussed by researchers. This paper, therefore, intends to explore the linkage between the quality of political institutions and the party conflict in Bangladesh. It will highlight the signs of weakness in some major political institutions e.g. the parliament, the electoral institution and the political party itself which have profound effect on intensifying conflict among contesting parties. Richard Jackson’s theoretical assumption of weak state framework states that the causes of internal conflict is in fact, located in the structures of weak states. However, this paper has showed how the existing weak intuitions including the political party have impact on the conditions to conflict between AL and BNP. The analysis of this paper suggests that the quality of state institutions has a strong impact on how the party conflict is conducted in Bangladesh.