On Monday, 24th July 2023, the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) hosted a conversation on eminent economist Professor Wahiduddin Mahmud’s recent book titled “উন্নয়নশীল দেশের গণতান্ত্রিক সমাজতন্ত্র: একটি রূপরেখা”.
Dr ATM Nurul Amin, Professor Emeritus, Asian Institute of Technology; Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman, Executive Chairman, Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC); Dr Sajjad Zohir, Executive Director, Economic Research Group (ERG); Dr M M Akash, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka; Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow, CPD and other CPD professionals attended the conversation. Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow, CPD moderated the session.
The discussion focused on the key concepts presented in the book by Professor Mahmud. Following a brief presentation by Professor Mahmud, an interactive and stimulating discussion took place where the participants and the author took an active part.
The conversation explored a number of issues which included the followings:
- Concepts of democratic socialism, social democracy and their interface with scientific socialism and real socialism, as advocated and practised in developing countries.
- Historical evolution of the idea of socialism and its contextual specificities.
- Key elements of social democracy – distributive justice, ownership, role of markets, fiscal policies etc.
- Relevance of the discourse in the current Bangladesh context.
- Political and social forces that define and strive for socialism in developing countries.
- Intellectual vision for the way forward – revolutionary reforms or reformed revolution; contextualisation of the idea of socialism in Bangladesh; the drivers of change.
The participants supported, contested, questioned and elaborated on some of the important ideas around the concept of democratic socialism put forward in the book.