Strengthening Democratic Governance Through Local Government Empowerment in Bangladesh: Challenges and Pathways Forward

This comprehensive study addresses the half dozen hues of decentralization and local government empowerment, and the dichotomous relationship between constitutional provided for reality. Notwithstanding extensive formal decentralization policies introduced since the 1970s, local authorities still encounter systemic challenges including very limited financial autonomy, widespread political intervention and centralized control structures that fundamentally contradict the pursuit of democratic governance goals. The study examines institutional structures, fiscal relationships and governance performance to identify eight key reform areas – financial autonomy through creative revenue options; constitutionally defined roles of levels of government; democratic balance at local level institutions; simplified path for availing the development fund transfers; strategic introduction of technologies for improved urban service delivery or beyond social registry formation strategy that facilitates an integrated approach towards anti-poverty fighting- spirit on an strong transformative mode Urban Governance Reform transformational capacity building 4.2. Bangladesh's urban population in 2023 will rise to 40.47%, and it is expected that projected demographic models predict this figure to increase to 56% by the year 2050, therefore, effectively functioning local governance is an imperative for attaining Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and tackling the complex manifestations of poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion that are essentially localized. Empirical evidence suggests that real devolution of power to local governments requires systemic reform that tackles fundamental structural bottlenecks and, at the same time, invests in strong institutional capacity for responsive, accountable and participatory governance in response to community driven needs rather than political ones.