Current Research
Seeking Space for State Reform
Seeking Space for State Reform
Consensus and Contradictions in Public Perceptions
Politics of State Reform Project - International Centre for Ethnic Studies
The main objectives of the Politics of State Reform Project were to identify and assess efforts to solve the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka through state reform. The research involved analyzing the structural impediments and politics behind the state reform initiatives and the reasons for their failure to provide a political solution for the ethnic conflict. What made this project unique was the attempt to understand the above from the perspectives of political elites and their constituencies – the citizens or the general public.
The category ‘the public’ includes all those who though politically active as voters or as a political constituency have no direct access to the workings of politics at the level of elite politics – political parties, civil society and the state. Peoples’ perspectives proved to be an interesting and important counterpoint to that of the political elite who profess to speak for them.
Grassroots perceptions about state reform were initially examined through more than a hundred in depth individual interviews and focus group discussions across 8 provinces in the country including the North and East. The interviewees were purposively selected through a combination of stratified (on the basis of region, socio-economic status, religion and ethnic differences) and snowball sampling. The findings from the qualitative research were extensively used in developing the comprehensive questionnaire for the national survey of 3,584 respondents. The qualitative research findings will be a part of a research report on the entire project to be published shortly.
The quantitative survey which is among the largest surveys carried out recently on public perceptions on politics in Sri Lanka was outsourced by ICES and carried out by a Colombo-based survey research organization with an extensive network of enumerators throughout the island.
This report provides descriptive statistical data on public perceptions of the Sri Lankan state and the question of state reform which is of particular significance in a post-war, post-LTTE context. The specific aim of this report is to provide relevant findings to the project stakeholders including policy makers and other interested individuals about the levels of public support for different reform initiatives among the diverse ethnic communities in the country. The findings of this research are especially salient at a time when there is a growing need for a political solution to the ethnic conflict as a prerequisite for reconciliation and long term peace and stability in the country. It is hoped that this information will feed into formulating relevant state policies and civil society activism.