Welfarism and Politics in Sri Lanka Welfarism and Politics in Sri Lanka Experience of a Third World Welfare State Foreword: Gamani Corea School of Social Work and Social Policy Copyright © Laksiri Jayasuriya 2000 First Published 2000 Published by the School of Social Work and Social Policy, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6907 Australia. All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system of transmitted by any means or process whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher. National Library of Sri Lanka cataloguing-in-publication data. Welfarism and Politics in Sri Lanka, Experience of a Third World Welfare State. Laksiri Jayasuriya: Foreword Gamani Corea Jayasuriya, D.L. (Dharmasoka Laksiri), 1931- Welfarism and politics in Sri Lanka : the experience of a third world welfare state ISBN 1 74052 003 3 1. Public Welfare — Sri Lanka — politics. 2. Welfare State — Sri Lanka. 3. Sri Lanka — Social Policy. I. University of Western Australia. Dept. of Social Work and Social Policy. II.Title. 361.6/1/095489 dc21 Printed by Uniprint, The University of Western Australia Cover Design by Past Midnight Designs, Highgate. WA iv For my family Rohini, Kanishka and Pradeep and my parents, Walter and Soma ‘Economic growth cannot sensibly be treated as an end in itself’ Amartya Sen (1999) ‘Socially regulated forms of capitalism do best in meeting human needs’ L. Doyal and I. Gough (1994) v vi FO R E W O R D A number of indicators have ranked Sri Lanka high among the developing countries for her attainments in the social field. But this very experience has given rise to a number questions that are relevant to the link between economic and social development, to democracy and political stability. The economist, using the tools of his discipline, has for the most part been ambiguous about such relationships. His arguments have ranged from depicting social progress as a by- product of economic growth, to the advocacy of minimal safety nets and a kind of ‘add on’ to development policy to ward off social upheavals. The identification and elaboration of patterns of economic and social growth that serve to reinforce each other has yet to emerge as an aid to planners and policy makers. The Sri Lankan experience provides material that is highly pertinent to such a task. The country’s achievements in the social field, now stretching out over a half century, have not been matched by comparable progress on the economic front. Over much of this period, economic growth rates in Sri Lanka were broadly similar to those of other South Asian countries. What is more, market oriented economic policies and resource constraints stemming from the quest for accelerated growth have now begun to undermine some of the country’s past social achievements, underlining thereby the urgency for new policy orientations. These and other facets of Sri Lanka’s experience are relevant to the future linkages between economic and social policies not only in Sri Lanka but in other developing countries as well. It is true that at present social safety nets and attention to the underprivileged are getting a new recognition in the international dialogue on development policies. But this new focus, welcome as it is, needs to be combined with a renewed vigour in the wider field of international development cooperation. It must not become a soft option and a substitute for the hard core issues that touch on the ‘raw nerves’ of international economic r e l a t i o n s . The present volume by Prof. Laksiri Jayasuriya is an outstanding contribution to this entire debate. As a social scientist of wide experience he has the analytical background, the insights and the interest to weave together a narrative of the Sri Lankan story that is probably without parallel. The social, economic, political, and educational processes that have unfolded in the country over the years are described and analysed in terms of their interactions and in the light of the vii a u t h o r’s deep commitment to equity, freedom, and progress. The book is a collection of essays and addresses presented over many years. This is, in itself, a merit because it recaptures the highlights and the concerns—academic as much as political—of the five decades that have gone by since Independence. But the spotlight is not exclusively on Sri Lanka. Developments elsewhere, and in the academic arena in particular, are also subjects of scrutiny and analysis enriched by the author’s rich background of experience in the worlds and social science and higher education. The book is thus far more than a critical retrospect of past developments in Sri Lanka. It is a pointer to the way in which future challenges need to be faced throughout the developing world. One of its outstanding merits is the focus it puts on those dimensions of political, social, and economic change that have hitherto received too little attention in the literature on development policy and planning. More specially, it is a timely contribution towards the quest for a mutually reinforcing and integrated process of economic and social development. For all this Prof. Jayasuriya’s work merits our appreciation and g r a t i t u d e . Gamani Corea C o l o m b o viii PREFACE This volume records the Sri Lankan phase of my academic career which was formerly terminated when I vacated the Foundation Chair of Sociology and Social Welfare at the University of Colombo in 1971 to accept an academic appointment in Australia at the University of Western Australia. I have, however, continued to maintain an abiding interest in Sri Lanka's social and political developments. My scholarly interests in Sri Lanka were fortunately reactivated in the 1980s by the award of an Australian Research Council (ARC) grant to undertake a study of comparative social policy developments in Sri Lanka,Thailand, and Indonesia. This project enabled me to initiate a study of social development in Sri Lanka in the post-Donoughmore period, i.e., since 1931. The primary objective of this research programme was to document and analyse the nature and character of the social welfare policy strategies pursued by successive Sri Lankan governments, especially in the post-independence period, i.e., 1948 onwards. Owing to my other academic and public commitments in Australia, much of the research material collected on this project remains unpublished except for one or two monographs. Some of the essays in this volume are, in fact,based on this unpublished research, others are taken from publications elsewhere and duly acknowledged. The essays, in this volume focus on contemporary social and political developments in Sri Lanka, especially those pertaining to social welfare and social policy. In these several essays, I have endeavoured to sketch the history of contemporary social policy developments and outlined in Chapters 1-3 some of the emerging issues such a diversity and equity for the Sri Lankan welfare state. The politics of social welfare are explored in Chapter 4 in the context of Electoral politics in a post-colonial society committed to a democratic system of government. The concluding chapters canvass a theoretical rationale for social development (chapter 4) based on Amartya Sen’s ‘capability paradigm’ and a policy framework for a new social democracy based on the “Third Way”(Chapter 6). The notion of ‘welfarism’, which underlies the essays in this volume, has in recent times, following the crisis of conventional development theorising in the 1970s and 1980s, assumed special significance for the Third World. The re- e m e rgence of the notion of ‘social development’ in development theorising, particularly after the World Summit for Social Development (WSSD) (The Copenhagen Summit) in 1996, has challenged development theorists and ix practitioners as well as politicians to examine more rigorously, within the broader confines of contemporary social and economic theorising the meaning of ‘social development’ in all societies. The need for such a perspective has gained in momentum after the Asian currency crisis and collapse of neo- classical models of economic growth, characteristic of the Asian Tigers. The phenomenon of public squalor amidst private wealth has galvanised the aid agencies and international institutions to re-think the goals and objectives of economic growth. In this context, the Sri Lankan experience may well have considerable significance for other Third World countries, especially those in the Asian region. It is important to record that Sri Lanka has for a variety of reasons, for most part of this century, been a veritable social laboratory, providing opportunities for notable social innovations and experiments in a ‘third world setting’ (e.g. the adoption of universal franchise, liberal political and legal institutions, welfare statist policies etc.), Sri Lanka remains an unusual case of a ‘ welfare state’ in a Third World context, and for this reason, has attracted much attention from development theorists and practitioners. H o w e v e r, despite these pathfinding initiatives, the study of the Sri Lankan welfare state, still remains sadly a relatively neglected area of research by Sri Lankan social scientists. Barring the writings of a few outstanding Sri Lankan economists, Sri Lankan social policy developments have been researched and documented primarily by overseas scholars such as Amartya Sen, Osmani, Sudhir Anand and others. By and large, Sri Lankan social scientists have failed to focus on aspects of Sri Lankan social development, such as social policy, social welfare, the political welfare and the sociology of welfare. I trust that this domain of social inquiry may encourage Sri Lankan scholars to undertake rigorous research on contemporary aspects of Sri Lankan society, especially those which relate to the far reaching social and political transformations and structural changes of Sri Lankan society.