Sri Lanka: State of Research on Democracy

https://doi.org/10.22146/pcd.25680

Jayadeva Uyangoda(1*)

(1) University of Colombo
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


In Sri Lanka's political science research, the body of work directly on the theme of democracy is somewhat thin. The survey and studies on the 'State of Democracy and Human Security', carried out by the Social Scientists Association (SSA) in 2004-2005 is the main research effort made directly in the field of democracy studies. This was a part of a larger South Asian study. The report on the State of Democracy in South Asia is now published by the Oxford University Press, India. Nevertheless, in the wide body of scholarly literature on political and social change in the post-colonial Sri Lanka written by political scientists, historians, sociologists and anthropologists, themes with direct relevance to democracy studies have constituted a subject of continuing interest.

This paper has two main parts. In the first part, it presents a survey of the major themes that have constitued the broadly social science research that are useful to place the problematic of democracy in a new research agenda. In the second, the paper suggests a few possible areas of new research on the theme of democracy.

Full Text:

PDF


References

Abeysekara, Ananda, 2002, Colors of the Robe: Religion, Identity and Difference, Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Caolina Press.

Amarasinghe, Y. Ranjith, 1998, Revolutionary Idealism and Parliamentary Politics: A Study of Trotskyism in Sri Lanka, Colombo: Social Scientists’ Association.

Amaratunga, Chanaka (ed.), 1989, Ideas for Constitutional Reform, Colombo: Council for Liberal Democracy. Ann, Adel, 1993, Women Fighters of Liberation Tigers, Jaffna.

Bastian, Sunil (ed.), 1994, Devolution and Development in Sri Lanka, New Delhi: Konark Publishing Ltd.

Bastian, Sunil and Luckham, Robin, (eds.), 2003, Can Democracy be Designed? The Politics of Institutional Choice in Confl ict-torn Societies, London & New York: Zed Books.

Coomaraswamy, Radhika, 1996, “Tiger Women and the Question of Women’s Emancipation,” Pravada, Vol. 4, No. 9, pp. 8-10.

Coomaraswamy, Radhika, 2003, “The Politics of Institutional Design: An Overview of the Case of Sri Lanka,” in Bastian, Sunil and Luckham, Robin, (eds.), pp. 120-137.

Coomaraswamy, Radika, 2003, “A Question of Honour: Women, Ethnicity and Armed Confl ict,” in Wenona Giles et al (eds.), Feminists Under Fire: Exchanges Across War Zones, Toronto: Between the Line, pp. 91-102.

Daniel, Valentine, 1997, Chapters in an Anthropology of Violence: Sri Lankans, Sinhalas and Tamils, Delhi: Oxford University Press.

De Mel, Neloufer, 1998, “Agent or Victim? The Sri Lankan Woman Militant in the Interrugnam,” in Micheal Roberts (ed.), Sri Lanka: Collective Identities Revisited, Volume II, Colombo: Marga Institute, pp. 199-220.

De Silva, Jani, 1993, “The Ethics of Struggle: Changing Political Perceptions among Secondary school Students in a Southern Sri Lankan Electorate,’’ in Ulrich Everding (ed.), Problems of Democracy, Constitutionalism and Political Violence, Colombo: Goethe Institute, pp. 73-18.

De Silva, Jani, 1994, “Centripetal Pressures and Regime Change in the Post-colonial Sri Lankan State,” in Sunil Bastian (ed.), Devolution and Development in Sri Lanka, New Delhi: Konark Publishing Ltd, pp. 34-82.

De Silva, Jani, 1998, Praxis, Language and Silence: The July 1987 Uprising of the JVP in Sri Lanka,” in Michael Roberts (ed.), Sri Lanka: Collective Identities Revisited, Volume II, Colombo: Marga Institute, pp. 163-198.

De Silva, K. M. 1998 a, Reaping the Whirlwind: Ethnic Confl ict, Ethnic Politics in Sri Lanka, London and New Delhi: Penguin Books.

De Silva, K. M. 1998 b, “Sri Lanka: Electoral Politics and the Resilience of Democracy,” in John m. Richardson Jr. and S. W. R. de a Samarasinghe, 1998, Democratisation in South Asia: The First Fifty Years, Kandy, Sri Lanka: International Center for Ethnic Studies, pp. 163-186.

Degalle, Mahinda, (ed.), 2006, Buddhism, Confl ict and Violence in Modern Sri Lanka, London and New York: Routledge.

Degalle, Mahinda, “JHU Politics for Peace and a Righteous State” in Degalle, Mahinda, (ed.), 2006, Buddhism, Confl ict and Violence in Modern Sri Lanka, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 433-254.

DeVotta, Neil, 2002, “Illiberalism and Ethnic Confl ict in Sri Lanka,’ Journal of Democracy, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 84-98.

DeVotta, Neil, 2006 “From Ethnic Outbidding to Ethnic Confl ict: The Institutional Bases for Sri Lanka’s Separatist War,” in P. Sahadevan and Neil DeVotta (eds.), Politics of Confl ict and Peace in Sri Lanka, New Delhi: Manak Publications, pp. 3-29.

DeVotta, Neil, 2003 b, “Sri Lanka’s Political Decay: Comparing the October 2000 and December 2001 Parliamentary Elections,’ Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 115- 142.

DeVotta, Neil, 2004, Blowback, Linguistic Nationalism, Institutional Decay and Ethnic Confl ict in Sri Lanka, Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Edrisinha, Rohan, 1993, “The Case for a Federal Constitution,” in Rohan Edrisinha and Jayadeva Uyangoda (eds.), Essays in Constitutional Reform, Colombo: University of Colombo.

Fernando, Laksiri, 1999, “Three Phases of Political Development after Independence,” in W. D. Lakshman and C. A. Tisdel (eds.), Facets of development of Sri Lanka Since Independence: Socio-Political, Economic, Scientifi c and Cultural, Queensland: The University of Queensland, pp. 109-132.

Gamburd, Geraldine, 1997, “Understankding Terrorism: Culture and Sharing - An Essential Relationship,” in Matters of Violence: Refl ections on social and Political Violence in Sri Lanka. Uyangoda, Jayadeva and Janika Biyanwila (eds.), Colombo: Social Scientists’ Association.

Goonathilake, Susantha, 2006, Recolonisation: Foreign Funded NGOs in Sri Lanka, New Delhi: SAGE.

Gosh, Partha, 2003, Ethnicity versus Nationalism: The Devolution Discourse in Sri Lanka, New Delhi: SAGE.

Gunasinghe, Newton, 2001, Selected Essays, Colombo: Social Scientists’ Association.

Gunasekera, Tamara, 1994, Hierarchy and Egalitarianism: Caste, Class and Power in Sinhalese Peasant Society, London: The Athlone Press.

Haniffa, Farzana, 2005, “Sri Lanka: Ethnic Confl ict, Post-Colonial Nation- Building and Militarisation,” in Jayadeva Uyangoda, (ed,), Militarising State, Society and Culture in Asia, Critical Perspectives, Hong Kong: ARENA.

Hellmann-Rajanayagam, Dagmar, 1994, The Tamil Tigers’ Armed Struggle for Identity, Stuutgart.

Hettige, S. T. 1984, Wealth, Power and Prestige: Emerging Patterns of Social Inequality in a Peasant Context [in Sri Lanka], Nugegoda: Dept. of Sociology, University of Sri Jayawardenapura.

Hettige, S. T. 1992, Unrest or Revolt?, Colombo: Goethe Institute. Jayantha, Dilesh, 1992, Electoral Allegiance in Sri Lanka, South Asian Studies 48, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jayasekara, P. V. J. and Amarasinghe, Ranjith, 1987, “The Economy, society and Polity from Independence to 1977,” in David Dunham and Charles Abeysekera (eds.), 1987, Essays on the Sri Lankan Economy, Colombo: Social Scientists’ Association.

Jayawardane, Amal, (ed.), 2007, Perspectives on National Integration in Sri Lanka, Colombo: National Integration Planning Unit.

Jayawardena Kishali Pinto and Kodikara, Chulani, 2003, Women and Governance in Sri Lanka, Colombo: International Centre for Ethnic Studies.

Jayawardena, Kumari and Malathi de Alwis, 1996, Embodied Violence, Communalising Women’s Sexuality in South Asia, New Delhi: Kali for Women.

Jiggins, Janice, 1979, Caste and Family in the Politics of the Sinhalese 1941.1976, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jupp, James, 1978, Sri Lanka Third World Democracy, Colombo: K. V. G de Silva and Sons.

Kapferer, Bruce, 1983, A Celebration of Demons, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Kapferer, Bruce, 1988, Legends of People, Myths of State, Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Kearney, Robert N, 1967, Communalism and Language in the Politics of Ceylon, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Kearny, Robert N, 1973, The Politics of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Krishna, Sankaran, 1999, Postcolonial Insecurities: India, Sri Lanka and the Question of Nationhood, Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press. Leach, Edmund, 1961, Pul Eliya, A Village in Ceylon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Leitan, Tressie, 2000, “Women in Political Participation and Decision Making,” in CENWOR, Post-Beijing Refl ections: Women in Sri Lanka 1995-2000, Colombo: CENWOR.

Lersky, George Jan 1964, History of Trotskyism in Ceylon, A Documentary History of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, Stanford: Stanford University Press.

McGilvray, D. B. (ed.), 1982, Caste, Ideology and Interaction, Cambridge University Press.

Manogaran, C and B. Pfafenberger (eds.), 1994, The Sri Lankan Tamils: Ethnicity and Identity, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Manor, James, (ed.), 1984, Sri Lanka: in Change and Crisis, London: Croom Helm. Mathews, Bruce, 1989, “The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the Politics of the Underground in Sri Lanka,’ Roundtable 312, pp. 425-439.

Maunaguru, Sitralega, 1995, “Gendering Tamil Nationalism: The Construction of “Woman” in Projects of Protest and Control,” in Pradeep Jeganathan and Quadri Ismail (eds.), Unmaking the Nation: Politics of Identity and History in Modern Sri Lanka, Colombo: Social Scientists’ Association, pp. 158-175.

Moore, Mick, 1990, “Economic Liberalization Vs. Political Pluralism in Sri Lanka,” Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 24, No. 2, (May 1990), pp. 341-383.

Moore, Mick, 1992, “Retreat from Democracy in Sri Lanka,” Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, No. 30, pp. 70-84.

Moore, Mick, 1993, “Thoroughly Modern Revolutionaries: the JVP in Sri Lanka,” Modern Asian Studies, No. 27, pp. 593-642.

Obeysekere, Gananath, 1967, Land Tenure in Village Ceylon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Obeysekere, Gananath, 1970, “Religious Symbolism and Political Change in Ceylon,” Modern Ceylon Studies, Vol. 1, pp. 48-63.

Obeysekere, Gananath, 1984, “The Institutionalization of Political Violence and the Dismantling of Democracy in Sri Lanka,” in Sri Lanka: Myths and Realities, Colombo: Centre for Rational Development.

Obeysekere, Gananath, 1995, “Buddhism, Nationhood and Cultural Identity: A Question of Fundamentals,” in M. E. Marty and R. S. Appelby (eds.), Fundamentalism Comprehended, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 231-256.

Peiris, Ralph, 1956, Sinhalese Social Organization; Colombo: University of Ceylon Press.

Perera, Sasanka, 1995, Living with Torturers and Other Essays of Intervention: Sri Lankan Society, Politics and Culture in Perspective, Colombo: International Center for Ethnic Studies.

Perera, Sasanka, 1999, Stories of Survivors: Socio-Political Contexts of Female Headed Households in Post-Terror Southern Sri Lanka, Colombo: Women’s Education and Research Center.

Pfaffenberger, Brian, 1982, Caste in Tamil Culture: The Religious Foundations of Sudra Domination in Tamil Sri Lanka, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

Phadnis, Urmila, 1976, Religion and Politics in Sri Lanka, London: C. Hurst.

Phadnis, Urmila, 1989, “Sri Lanka: Crisis of Legitimacy and Integration” in Larry Diamond, Juan Linz and Seymour Martin Lipset (eds.), Democracy in Asia, New Delhi: Vistaar Publications.

Ponnambalam, S, 1981, Dependent Capitalism in Crisis: the Sri Lankan Economy 1948-1980, London: Zed Press.

Rajasingham-Senanayake, Darini, 2001, “Ambivalent Empowerment: The Tragedy of Tamil Women in Sri Lanka,” in Rita Manchanda (ed.), Women, War and Peace in South Asia, New Delhi: SAGE, pp. 102-130.

Rajasingham-Senanayake, Darini, 1999, “Democracy and the Making of Bi-Polar Ethnic Identity,” in J. Pfaff-Czarnecka et al (eds.), Ethnic Futures: the State and Identity Politics in Asia, New Delhi: SAGE.

Rampton, David, 2003, “Sri Lanka’s Many Headed Hydra: The JVP, Nationalism and the Politics of Powerty,” in CEPA, Politics of Poverty in Sri Lanka, Colombo: CEPA.

Robert. Michael (ed.), 1979, Collective Identities, Nationalisms and Protests in Modern Sri Lanka, Colombo: Marga Institute.

Roberts, Michael, 1978, “Ethnic Confl ict in Sri Lanka and Sinhalese Perspectives: Barriers to Accommodation,” in Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 12, No, 3, pp. 353-376.

Robinson, Margaret, 1975, Political Structure in a Changing Sinhalese Village, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ryan, B, 1953, Caste in Modern Ceylon, The Sinhalese System in Transition, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Samaranayake, Gamini, 2008, Political Violence in Sri Lanka 1071-1987, New Delhi: Gyan Publishers.

Scott, David, 1992, “The Demonology of Nationalism: On the Anthropology of Ethnicity and Violence in Sri Lanka,” Economy and Society, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 492-510.

Scott, David, 1994, Formation of Ritual: Colonial Anthropological Discourses and the Sinhala Yaktovil, Minnesota: Minnesota University Press.

Senaratne, J. P. 1997, Political Violence in Sri Lanka 1997-1990: Riots, Insurrections, Counterinsurgencies and Foreign Intervention, Amsterdam: VU University Press.

Seneviratne, H. L. 1999, The Work of Kings: The New Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Shastri, Amita, 1994, The Provincial Council System in Sri Lanka: A Solution to the Ethnic Problem?” in Sunil Bastian (ed.) Devolution and Development in Sri Lanka, New Delhi: Konark Publishing Ltd, pp. 198-226.

Spencer, Jonathan, 1990 a, A Sinhala Village in a Time of Trouble, Politics and Change in Rural Sri Lanka, Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Spencer, Jonathan, 1990 b, “Writing Within: Anthropology, Nationalism and Culture in Sri Lanka,” Current Anthropology, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 283-300.

Spencer, Jonathan, 1997, Anthropology, Politics and the State: Democracy and Vioelnce State of Democracy in South Asia, A Report, 2008, New Delhi: Oxford University Press

Stirrat, R. L. 1982, “Caste Conundrums: Views of Caste in Sinhalese catholic Village,” in D. B. McGilvray (ed.), Caste Ideology and Interaction, Cambridge; Cambridge University Press.

Stokke., Kristian, 2006, “Building the Tamil Eelam State: Emerging State Institutions and Forms of Governance in LTTE-Controlled Areas in Sri Lanka,” in Third World Quarterly, 27:6, pp. 1021-1040.

Tambiah, S. J. 1986, Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and Dismantling of Democracy, Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Tambiah, S. J. 1992, Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics and Violence in Sri Lanka, Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Thiruchandran, Selvi, 1999, The Other Victims of War: Emergence of Female-Headed Households in Eastern Sri Lanka, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House.

Tiruchelvam, Neelan, 2000, The Politics of Federalism and Diversity in Sri Lanka,” in Ghai, Yash (ed.), 2000, Autonomy and Ethnicity, Negotiating Competing Claims in Multi-Ethnic States, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 197-215.

Uyangoda, Jayadeva, 1996, “Militarization, Violent State, Violent society, Sri Lanka,” in Kumar Rupesinghe and Khawar Mumtaz (eds.), 1996, Internal Confl icts in South Asia, London and New Delhi: SAGE, pp. 118-130.

Uyangoda, Jayadeva, 2000, “A State of Desire? Some Refl ections on the Unreformability of Sri Lanka’s Post-Colonial Polity,” in S. T. Hettige and Markus Mayer (eds.), Sri Lanka at Crossroads, Dilemmas and Prospects after 50 Years of Independence, New Delhi: Macmillan, pp. 92-118.

Uyangoda, Jayadeva, 2001, Questions of Sri Lanka’s Minority Rights, Colombo: International Center for Ethnic Studies.

Uyangoga, Jayadeva, 2007, “Power-Sharing and Autonomy rights of ‘Minority’ Communities in Sri Lanka,”in Jayawardane, Amal, (ed.), 2007, Perspectives on National Integration in Sri Lanka, Colombo: National Integration Planning Unit, pp.43-55.

Uyangoda, Jayadeva and Janaka Biyanwila (eds.), 1997, Matters of Violence: Refl ections on Social and Political Violence in Sri Lanka, Colombo: Social Scientists’ Association.

Warnapala, W A. Wiswa and Hewagama, L. Dias, 1983, Recent Politics in Sri Lanka: The Presidential Election and the Referendum of 1982, A Study of Electoral Practice and Behaviour in an Asian Democracy, New Delhi: Navrang.

Wickramaratne, Jayampathy, 2007, “Power-Sharing Plus: The Only Way Forward” in Jayawardane, Amal (ed.), Perspectives on National Integration in Sri Lanka, Colombo: NIPU, pp. 92-100.

Wickramasinghe, Nira, 2001, Civil Society in Sri Lanka, New Circles of Power, New Delhi: SAGE Publications.

Wilson, A. J. 1974, Politics in Sri Lanka 1947-1973, London: Macmillan

Wilson, A. J. 1975, Electoral Politics in an Emergent State, London: Cambridge University Press.

Wilson, A. J, 1988, The Break-up of Sri Lanka: The Sinhalese-Tamil Confl ict, London: Croom Helm.

Wilson, A. J. 2000, Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism: Its Origins and Development in the 19th and 20th Centuries, London: Penguin.

Woodward, Calvin, A, 1969, The Growth of a Party System in Ceylon, Providence, Rhode Island: Brown University Press.

Wriggins, Howard, 1960, Dilemmas of a New Nation, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Yalman, Nur, 1967, Under the Bo Tree, Berkeley and LA: University of California Press.



DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/pcd.25680

Article Metrics

Abstract views : 3258 | views : 2362

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2017 Power, Conflict and Democracy Journal

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

web
analytics View My Stats

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

       

 

 

                                © Faculty of Social and Political Sciences Gadjah Mada University Jl. Sosio-Yustisia Bulaksumur Yogyakarta 55281
                                                     Telp (0274) 563362 Ext. 150; +62 811 2515 863 - email: pcd@ugm.ac.id