Taking Social Development Seriously: The Experience of Sri Lanka

236 Pages·2010·5.621 MB·English

by  Laksiri Jayasuriya

Taking Social Development
Seriously
Advanced Praise for the Book
This is a scholarly book of singular importance. It is also a powerful
statement of timely significance for a deeply conflicted society that has just
endured a quarter century of bloody civil war—Sri Lanka in 2010.
Professor Laksiri Jayasuriya has achieved that double success through a
rare capacity to address social theory via a comparative lens, coupled with
a deep appreciation of how past and present interact ... Sri Lanka may have
had no Nelson Mandela to bring a statesmanship of Reconciliation, but it
still has the wise reflections of this deep thinking and humane scholar.
Deryck Schreuder, Professor Emeritus, University ofSydney, Australia,
former Challis Professor ofHistory, University of Sydney and
Vice-Chancellor, University of Western Australia
Professor Jayasuriya offers us an intriguing excursion into the history of
social policy in Sri Lanka ... a revealing study in the political economy
of social policy and one that emphasises the importance of the interplay
of historical legacies and emerging post-colonial politics ... Sri Lanka may
be ‘a unique case’ but the lessons that Professor Jayasuriya draws from its
welfare history are by no means unique [only for Sri Lanka] .
Roy Parker, Professor Emeritus ofSocial Policy,
University ofBristol, the UK
Jayasuriya’s study purposively draws us back to important ideas about the
interaction of states and markets in achieving relatively equitable social
development ... the author breaks out of the dominant economistic
analysis of Sri Lanka’s development experience. One of the elements of this
theoretical fusion is an attention to the legacies of British colonial rule ...
But this is not simply a work of history, for Jayasuriya is very much focused
on what he calls the ‘deteriorating contemporary human condition as a
global malaise’.
Kevin Hewison, Professor, Department ofAsian Studies,
Director, Carolina Asia Center,
University ofNorth Carolina, USA
Taking Social Development
Seriously
The Experience of Sri Lanka
LAKSIRI JAYASURIYA
www.sagepublications.com
AMR/ Los Angeles (cid:127) London (cid:127) New Delhi (cid:127) Singapore « Washington DC
Copyright © Laksiri Jayasuriya, 2010
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publisher.
First published in 2010 by
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Published by Vivek Mehra for SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, typeset in
10/12 pt Minion by Star Compugraphics Private Limited, Delhi and printed at
Chaman Enterprises, New Delhi.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jayasuriya, Laksiri.
Taking social development seriously: the experience of Sri Lanka/Laksiri
Jayasuriya.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Sri Lanka-Social policy. 2. Sri Lanka-Social conditions. I. Title.
HN670.8.A8J36 303.4095493—dc22 2010 2010020642
ISBN: 978-81-321-0465-0 (HB)
The SAGE Team: Elina Majumdar, Aniruddha De and Trinankur Banerjee
To
my father, late Walter Jayasuriya,
and
my wife, Rohini

Contents
List ofAbbreviations ix
Foreword by James Midgley xi
Acknowledgements xv
1 Introduction 1
PART ONE: Social Development and Social Policy
2 Changing Ideas of Social Policy 15
3 Rethinking Social Development 33
4 Marshall and Citizenship Theorising 50
PART TWO: The Evolution of Social Development in Sri Lanka
5 The Formative Phase of Social Development in Sri Lanka 69
6 Welfarism and Democratisation in the Late Colonial State
(1931-48) 88
7 Consolidation of the Welfare State 108
PART THREE: The End of an Era and Reframing Welfarism
8 Retreat from the Welfare State 139
9 Reclaiming Social Democracy: Charting a ‘Third Way’
for Sri Lanka 157
10 Postscript: Taking Stock after the Fall of Sri Lanka’s
‘Berlin Wall’ 178
<
Afterword by Nimal Sanderatne 188
References 195
Index 214
About the Author 218

List of Abbreviations
APPF Approved Private Provident Fund
ARC Australian Research Council
CEA Cease Fire Agreement
EPF Employee Provident Fund
ESCAP Economic and Social Commission for Asia
and the Pacific
ETF Employee Trust Fund
GDI Gender-related Development Index
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GNP Gross National Product
GoSL Government of Sri Lanka
HDI Human Development Index
HPI Human Poverty Index
ICES International Centre for Ethnic Studies
IDP Internationally Displaced Persons
ILO International Labour Organisation
IMF International Monetary Fund
JHU Jathika Hela Urumaya
JVP Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
LMS Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery
LSSP Lanka Sama Samaja Party
LTTE Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
MDGs Millennium Development Goals
MHDP Million Houses Development Programme
MILEX Military Expenditure
NGO Non-governmental Organisation
NIEO New International Economic Order
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development
PQLI Private Quality of Life Index
PSPF Public Sector Provident Fund
PSPS Public Service Pension Schemes
RDS Rural Development Societies