Policy and Politics of Preference: The Quota System in the Bangladesh Civil Service

The quality of any democracy is reflected by the extent and magnitude of democratic inclusion inherent or intended for the system. The notion of democratic inclusion, which, broadly, is "the incorporation, influence and representation of various disadvantaged social groups within democratic institutions" (Hero & Wolbrecht 2005, 4), has become prominent in recent years. In every democratic society, existing or aspiring, public policies are being shaped to politically incorporate traditionally unrepresented disadvantaged groups in state structures, especially the public bureaucracy. As Donald Kingsley (1944, 185) argued in his seminal work several decades ago: "In a democracy competence alone is not enough. The public service must also be representative if the state is to liberate rather than enslave". As well, in a democracy civil servants are said to be "exercising a public trust" and therefore are expected to be "representative ... of the people as a whole" (Rosenbloom 1989, 11) and thus the state has the responsibility to provide opportunities to everyone irrespective of their social, economic, gender and ethnic attributes to enter public offices.