What does this research mean for the field?

The durability of Sheikh Hasina's regime in Bangladesh (2009–2024) was sustained not only by coercive authoritarian tactics but also by a noncoercive pathway that strategically promoted economic, infrastructural, and social achievements to secure domestic consent and foreign investment. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.INCREMENTAL. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

This research examines the noncoercive strategies that support the durability of Sheikh Hasina's regime in Bangladesh.

June 10, 2026

Domestic and International Consent: Regime Durability in Bangladesh (2009–2024)

Key Points

This research examines the noncoercive strategies that support the durability of Sheikh Hasina's regime in Bangladesh.
Analyzes the government's cultivation of a positive political image and economic achievements.
Considers the impact of infrastructural projects and gender equality advancements.
Examines how these elements attract foreign investment and support domestic political stability.
Positive political image from infrastructure and development projects fosters domestic support.
Economic growth indicators, such as GDP ratios and foreign currency reserves, enhance investment interest.
Improvements in gender equality and the Human Development Index contribute to regime credibility.

Abstract

Existing literature attributes the durability of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s regime (2009–2024) to authoritarian tactics such as personalistic rule, electoral rigging, restricted opposition participation, corruption, and extrajudicial disappearances and murders of opposition members, which exemplify the corrosive dynamics of power accumulation in an authoritarian system. However, this article addresses another aspect of the authoritarian puzzle: an alternative, noncoercive pathway to regime durability. It emphasizes how the prior government’s cultivation of a positive political image, contrasting with the previous political regime’s limitations, economic capacity-building, large-scale infrastructural projects, internal security assurances, growth of foreign currency reserves, elevated gross domestic product ratios, advancements in gender equality, and improvements in the Human Development Index, shows all these achievements have been constantly published through various means to ensure domestic political support, attract foreign investment, and be used in the form of a circle.

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