The mimicry of the state as a state practice : the regulation of rickshaw licenses in Dhaka (Bangladesh)

Around half a million cycle rickshaws are currently active in Dhaka, Bangladesh. With only 86,000 official licenses available, different types of organizations supply licenses to most rickshaw drivers. These non-official licenses mimic the language of the state. This article argues that while these licenses appear as part of nonstate, hybrid, or twilight institutions, they in fact constitute a state practice. Based on approximately 200 semi-structured interviews at six locations in Dhaka and offering a conceptualization of the Bangladesh state as a party-state, the article shows that the operation of non-official rickshaw licenses and the mimicry entailed is an inherent part of party-state governance, one which is not morally neutral. While most respondents saw the everyday benefits of non-official licenses in the absence of sufficient official ones, the latter remained the most prized and, if made available, respondents agreed that the former would become redundant

Segmentary opposition, vertical integration and the structure of political relations in Bangladesh : a descriptive model

This article aims to conceptualize political relations in Bangladesh by building a descriptive model of these relations. It draws on the concept of segmentary opposition developed by Evans-Pritchard in his study of the Nuer political system and on the concept of vertical integration used in the study of both industrial relations and party structures in federal states. It is argued that the structure of political relations in Bangladesh is based on the interaction of the logic of segmentary opposition and of vertical integration under leader-based groups. The descriptive model is then applied to two cases, based on qualitative fieldwork in Dhaka and Chittagong, to further clarify the model and illustrate its use as an analytical tool

Neutrality, party politics and community mediation in central and west Terai, Nepal

This paper examines the relationship between the concept of neutrality in community mediation and the inherently partisan nature of politics. Mediation theory often highlights the central importance of mediator neutrality in mediation practice. We examine the interplay between these two fields through an analysis of a donorsupported community mediation program in the Central and Western Terai, the belt of lowland plains in the south of Nepal. This paper tries to understand why, in areas where politician’s role in dispute settlement is considered highly biased, neutrality in mediation can still be an option for these politicians. This paper argues that, despite clear reasons for mediators to act in a biased way, there are also incentives for them to act neutrally. These incentives stem primarily from political concerns as related to authority and standing in the community. In a context where both disputants and politicians ‘shop’ between different dispute settlement mechanisms, this paper finds that these incentives influence where these groups choose to adjudicate cases. In this wider dispute settlement context, where politicians have incentives to be neutral in mediation, but partisan in other dispute settlement settings, there is a danger that while the ‘internal’ neutrality of community mediation might be upheld, this goes at the detriment of neutrality in justice delivery as a whole

Land disputes and settlement mechanisms in Nepal's Terai

This paper is a background study to JSRP 12 and is based on primary research carried out in nine VDCs across the Terai region in Nepal during 2012 and 2013. It studies a range of land disputes brought to community mediation and was supported by a Fellowship provided by The Asia Foundation as part of an ongoing collaboration with the JSRP examining theories of change in practice. An examination of the relationship between the concept of neutrality in community mediation and the inherently partisan nature of politics can be found in JSRP Paper 12 by the same authors

The past, present and future of slum property regimes in Chittagong, Bangladesh

This article argues for the need to take time into account when understanding land ownership in slums. It shows that this allows comprehending more accurately the place of land law and the specific forms that legal struggles over land take. Field research in a slum in Chittagong (in Bangladesh) reveals that while contemporary practices of ownership and transfer might appear to be informal and illegal, they are not only grounded in historical forms of legal land settlement, embedded in a long-standing court battle over legal ownership, but also the product of expectations related to the (legalised) future. Finally, urban planning, with a state-sponsored vision of the future of slums, further complicates the role of the law