Socialism: Utopian vs Scientific

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The Impact of Participatory Budgeting to Ensure Good Governance

Abstract

Participatory budgeting has been advocated as a democratic innovation that could bring governance closer to citizens. In Bangladesh, however, democratic innovations are at the infantile stage. Only a handful of participatory budgeting projects have been initiated so far. The aim of this paper is to present the main lessons learnt from these projects and to present the impact of participatory budgeting as a tool or process to ensure good governance. While preparing this paper, it has been trying to identity and discuss, whether participatory budgeting has been successfully implemented or not and what kind of the problems participatory budgeting faced while implementing. Also focused on how Participatory Budgeting play a helpful role in establishing good governance in a such counties. After study it has been found that, Participatory budgeting is an effect of development processes, rather than a tool for achieving development goals.

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Urban Local Government Budgeting in Bangladesh: Procedure and Problems

 Abstract

The history of local government is older than the history of national government. Local government started its journey from the Ancient Greece, where various types of local city states exist. Local government is also an important term of the present world. Because today’s national governments are bigger in size, and they cover a large population. For this reason, the national government handover some of its duties to the local government to give the citizens better benefits. There are two types of local government: Urban Local Government & Rural Local Government. The history of Urban Local Government in the Indian sub-continent, especially in Bangladesh started from the Mughal era. Today, most of the development of an urban area depends on the urban local government. Budgeting is one of the most important part of urban local government. In this paper, we will discuss about the procedure and problems of the urban local government budgeting in Bangladesh.

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Evaluating the Impact of E-governance in Facilitating Citizen Engagement at Local Level

Abstract

The transformative potential of e-governance in enhancing citizen engagement at the local level has garnered significant attention worldwide. This research endeavours to evaluate the impact of e-governance on fostering citizen engagement within the context of Bangladesh. The study's objectives encompass assessing citizen awareness and digital literacy's influence on e-governance participation, evaluating the efficacy of existing e-governance tools in facilitating engagement, and identifying barriers hindering citizen involvement. Employing a mixed-method approach, this research draws data from 50 respondents in the 3 No South Durgapur Union of Adarsha Sadar Upazilas, Cumilla. The findings underscore several critical aspects, including the limited digital adaptation among senior citizens and less educated segments, as well as a prevailing lack of awareness concerning e-governance initiatives and the Union Digital Centre (UDC). Insufficient service provision by the UDC, exacerbated by poor internet connectivity, compounds the challenges. Moreover, the absence of timely responses to feedback, inadequate service quality, and concerns over data privacy further impede effective e-governance adoption. The significance of this research lies in its contribution to the discourse surrounding e-governance and citizen engagement, specifically within the local governance framework of Bangladesh. The findings elucidate issues pertinent to technology adoption, service accessibility, and transparency enhancement. The study not only sheds light on barriers but also offers recommendations to surmount these obstacles, serving as a valuable resource for government agencies aiming to bolster citizen participation. Additionally, this research enriches the literature available to future scholars and researchers interested in exploring the intricate interplay between e-governance, local government dynamics, and citizen engagement.

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