Journal of Primeasia
Integrative Disciplinary Research | Online ISSN 3064-9870 | Print ISSN 3069-4353
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Volume 7 Number 1 2026
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)
Transparency, Accountability, and Citizen Participation as Drivers of Local Government Effectiveness: Evidence from Bangladesh
Md. Motaher Hossain 1*
Journal of Primeasia 7 (1) 1-10 https://doi.org/10.25163/primeasia.7110792
Submitted: 31 March 2026 Revised: 18 June 2026 Accepted: 24 June 2026 Published: 26 June 2026
Abstract
Local government institutions in Bangladesh, at least on paper, are supposed to be the closest point of contact between the state and its citizens — yet whether they actually function that way, in practice, is a question that deserves closer scrutiny than it usually receives. This study examines how transparency, accountability, and citizen participation jointly shape governance effectiveness within Union Parishads, Pourashavas, and City Corporations. A convergent mixed-methods design combined a structured survey of 400 respondents (local officials, elected representatives, and citizens) with semi-structured interviews from 20 key informants, allowing the numbers to be read alongside the stories behind them. Descriptive results indicated moderate transparency (M = 3.42, SD = 0.82) and accountability (M = 3.18, SD = 0.90), while citizen participation lagged noticeably behind (M = 2.95, SD = 0.87). Multiple regression confirmed that all three predictors significantly influenced governance effectiveness — transparency most strongly (β = 0.34, p < .001), followed by accountability (β = 0.28, p < .001) and participation (β = 0.22, p < .001) — together explaining 52% of the variance. Qualitative accounts, however, complicated this tidy statistical picture: participants repeatedly described participation as procedurally present but substantively hollow, and accountability as routinely diluted by political interference. Taken together, the findings suggest that governance effectiveness in Bangladesh's local institutions depends less on any single reform than on the alignment of transparency, accountability, and genuine citizen voice — a conclusion with direct implications for decentralization policy and institutional design.
Keywords: Local Governance; Decentralization; Accountability; Citizen Participation; Bangladesh
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