Current Research
Politics of State Reform
The ICES Politics of State Reform research project funded by the World Banks Post Conflict Fund commenced on the 1st of June 2009 and was successfully completed on the 23rd of February 2011. The principal aims of this research were to identify and study past attempts at state reform to resolve the ethnic conflict, understand the structural impediments and politics behind these attempts and the reasons for their failure from the perspectives of both the political elites and the subaltern or the ordinary citizen.
The methodology used in this project ranged from the analysis of primary archival data and the study of secondary sources to over 100 qualitative interviews with members of the political elite (representing a wide spectrum of political parties) and a cross section of citizens in 8 provinces of the country. In addition a nation wide survey of 3,500 respondents was carried out to collect quantitative data for descriptive statistics and regression analysis.
The main objective of the project was to learn from past failures and identify the space for future reform in order to influence policy through a dialogue facilitated by a series of seminars with the stakeholders to the project which includes policy makers, practitioners and civil society organizations, academics and peace constituency, i.e. peace support/lobby groups. The feedback received from the stakeholders during the seminars indicated a high level of recognition of the importance of the research findings to the current situation in the country.
The study of political elite perspectives on state reform reveals that the absence of the threat of secession in a post LTTE context is seen by the political leadership representing the ethnic minority communities in Sri Lanka – the ethnic Sri Lankan Tamils, the Muslims and the Up-Country Tamils as a historical moment for the implementation of state reform in the direction of devolution. However, given the strong development drive initiated by the ruling alliance there appears to be the possibility that development and not devolution will be the way forward in post war Sri Lanka. This position is contested by the political elite of the ethnic minorities who, while conceding that development is necessary, see devolution as a parallel process that is required to meet the group rights claims of Sri Lanka’s ethnic minorities. However, apart from entering into political alliances with the Sinhala political leadership, the strategies of ethnic minority political leaders to push for an agenda of political reforms that will expand the social bases of the state remains ambiguous.
At the level of popular perceptions the research identified widespread support among the citizens of all communities for state reform to solve the ethnic conflict, by strengthening power sharing mechanisms through a Provincial Council system with enhanced powers. This trend which was identified in the qualitative interviews was supported by the quantitative data where 60% of Sinhalese, 77% of Sri Lankan Tamils, 84% of Up-Country Tamils and 92% of Sri Lankan Muslims felt that the full implementation of the Provincial Council Act was the solution to the Ethnic Conflict. People from all ethnic groups including 80% of the Sinhalese community surveyed agreed that minorities would continue to have grievances while even 72% of the majority community felt that a return to armed conflict was possible if there was no state reform or a political solution to the ethnic conflict.
The research also provided important insights into popular perceptions and expectations from the state and political representatives. It also provides an analysis of popular perceptions among all ethnic groups about the causes of ethnic conflict including issues of discrimination and minority grievances which are of salience for the development of policies and mechanisms for social inclusion and national integration in a post war context.