Constitutional Liberalism: An Emerging Challenge To Democracy Analysis

Constitutional Liberalism: An Emerging Challenge to Democracy in Bangladesh

Introduction
In recent decades democracy has declined noticeably around the world. Bangladesh is not an exception to this global trend. Diamond observes Bangladesh has faced the breakdown of democracy two times from 2000 to 2014. During 2014, it was the breakdown of the electoral process (Diamond 2015) where the opposition boycotts the election. According to the Freedom House Report 2014, the political rights of the country declined from 3 to 4 due to the controversial election and political violence to the opposition parties. Like most of the Asian countries, Bangladesh observes democracy through the electoral system, where majority votes determine

There is a rise of populism, on the one side, and the militancy, on the other side. With this increasing corrupted political leaders as well as militancy, the democracy and the stability of the country is at threat.
In this context, the paper will evaluate the position of Bangladesh as a democratic country structured into four parts including an introduction, democracy in Bangladesh, the emerging challenges to democracy in Bangladesh, and concluding remarks.
Democracy
Democracy is the rule by the people where the voice of the people is important in any decision affecting them. Indeed, people are the sovereign of the state, in a sense that they choose their own representative or government to be governed by them. The ruler of a democratic system differs from other political systems by its accountability to the people for its every action. The liberal democracy is the most popular form of a political system of the present

The democratic society ensures the rule of law in contrast to an authoritarian system where the ruler is above the law. As the rule of law provides all are under the law, whether it may be a government official or a citizen, it ensures the equality before the law which is embodied in the constitution of the country (Jahan 2003, p.10). The practice in Bangladesh provides the party in the position is always above the law. Consequently, the common practice of the country shows that opposition leaders are always harassed by the police of the ruling party (Ahmed 2013). The current ruling party after taking its position abolish the old system of the electoral system by the caretaker government and passed laws to conduct a general election under the election commission of the country. Unfortunately, the election commission failed to gain the trust of the opposition, consequently the boycotts last general election. Similarly, different laws are misused by the government to control the freedom of expression of the other political parties. Even the law enforcement agencies are used to suppress the voice of the civil societies. Furthermore, the list of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings has increased alarmingly during the last few