Inquiring Autonomy of Local Governance in Bangladesh: The Case of Union Parishad Uddin Nasir Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration, University of Chittagong, Chittagong-4331, Bangladesh. Email id: nasir095@yahoo.com Online published on 2 May, 2019. Abstract This paper examines the autonomous status of local government, particularly Union Parishad, in Bangladesh based on the review of secondary sources of information. In doing so, four different dimensions of local autonomy, such as fiscal, administrative, functional and institutional have been identified in the context of developing countries to assess the present status of autonomy of the Union Parishad. The findings of the analysis show that although Bangladesh has legally and constitutionally democratic and autonomous local government system, but practically, Union Parishads enjoy minutes of fiscal, functional, administrative and institutional freedom to perform their functions and jurisdictions effectively and independently. Moreover, the Union Parishads merely carry out the delegated tasks of national government. In fact, the government exercises a high scale of control and interference over the Union Parishads which limit the autonomy and efficiency of the institutions. Top Keywords Local autonomy, Local governance, Fiscal, Administrative, Functional, Institutional, Union Parishad, Bangladesh. Top |