Comparatively discuss between bi-party and multi-party systems, which one is most

applicable for Bangladesh and why?

Political party is the most significant political organization. It is an integral part of our society.
According to Max Weber, “Political party can be defined as an associative type of relationship,
membership in which rest on formally free recruitment.”

The topology of party system is mainly of three types. These are- one party system, bi-party
system and multi-party system.

A bi-party system is a party system where two major political parties dominate the political
landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the
legislature and is usually referred to as the majority or governing party while the other is the
minority or opposition party.

A multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political
spectrum run for national election, and all have the capacity to gain control of government
offices, separately or in coalition.

Between bi-party and multi-party, the party system which is most applicable for Bangladesh is
multi-party system.

Where there are more than two active political parties in the politics and they have elected
representatives at the national and various sub-national levels of the country are a multi-party
system. E.g. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are some examples. . Bangladesh has AL, BNP, JP
and many other parties.

Politics of Bangladesh takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative

democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Bangladesh is the head of government, and
of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is
vested in both the government and parliament. Bangladesh has a fading two-party system, which
means that there are two dominant political parties, with extreme difficulty for anybody to
achieve electoral success under the banner of another party. However, though the center-
left Awami League (AL) and center-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) dominated
Bangladesh politics for a long time, currently both are heading coalitions of like-minded parties
with the AL leading the secular and liberal elements while BNP is rallying the right-of-center
parties. The advantages of multiparty system is that government becomes more stable, ensures a
strong government and continuity of policy, easy identification of the failure and short-comings
of the government, conservative criticism, commanding position of the prime minister,
government becomes more stable and so on. Advantages of proportional representation multi-
party systems include allowing for more choice and a variety of opinions to be heard.
Advantages of a two-party system include simplicity, consistency, and stability. However,
despite their advantages, both systems can lead to legislative gridlock in different ways. The
demerits of multi-party system includes dictatorship of the cabinet, limited choice for the voters,
prestige of the legislature is lowered, dictatorship of the majority party, divide the nation into
two irreconcilable camps, all shades of opinion are not represented in the legislature and so on

So, between bi-party and multi-party, the party system which is most applicable for Bangladesh
is multi-party system.