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Politics, Economic Policy and Social Provisioning:Growth and Dismantling of the Welfare State in Sri Lanka |
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David Dunham |
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With growing inequality, social exclusion and reduced social protection under neo-liberal
economic policies, there is renewed interest in universal social provisioning to ensure that
everyone has access to basic services and to a minimum standard of living. This article asks
what history can tell us about problems that are likely to be encountered. It looks at the case of
Sri Lanka—a country with an extensive and much-acclaimed welfare state in the 1970s that
has since been gradually dismantled. It examines the conventional explanation of what has
happened and contrasts it with an alternative view that highlights the importance of political
support, the adequacy of the conceptualisation that underlies the model, and technical
assumptions of “good governance” that are too often taken for granted. |
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