How can the interests of the socially excluded be better addressed through state reforms in Sri Lanka? Making use of the two dimensions of capital and coercion, this article from the Bulletin of the Institute of Development Studies analyses the processes of state reform that have ensured the social exclusion of large sections of the population and set the stage for conflict. It argues that the current orthodoxies of state reform – supported by the international community – do not address issues of social exclusion and need to be rethought in order to avert violence and ensure long-term stability and security.
Charles Tilly’s ‘capital’ and ‘coercion’ categories are useful in understanding the nature of the state and social exclusion in contemporary Sri Lanka. While the state has been reformed to promote the interests of capital, it has not been to been able to protect the socially excluded from the negative impacts of the market. While the state has undertaken a determined military effort to crush the separatist armed groups, there have been few institutional reforms to meet the grievances of the Tamil population.
- Capital and social exclusion: The demands of capital have brought about changes in the structure of the Sri Lankan state; the presidential and proportional representation systems of government aimed to further the interests of capital. Sri Lanka has also undertaken reforms to reduce state intervention into the economy.
- Due to resistance from local interests and international aid agencies, some of the major reforms have not been fully implemented. The Sri Lankan state has not shrunk. Nevertheless, liberalisation of the economy has brought reasonable economic growth.
- Society is displaying typical characteristics of the impacts of a market economy: consumption poverty was around 23 percent in 2002; inequality is as high as ever; and rural livelihoods are being dismantled, but there is a growth in the wage earning class. Strategies to tackle these social contradictions have been very weak. Safety nets have not worked and donor activities have been unsuccessful.
- The real problem for Sri Lanka in the area of social exclusion has been the inability of a bloated and dysfunctional state to intervene on behalf of the socially excluded in the context of penetration of capitalist production relations. This has been largely due to the undermining of state capacity through a system of patronage politics, whereby politicians seek to ensure access to resources.
- While those parts of the state responsible for promoting interests of capital have functioned with some degree of coherence, institutions responsible for taking care of the socially excluded have been undermined. Trade unions are caught up in patronage politics.
- Coercion and social exclusion: The implementation of the 13th amendment has coincided with a strengthening of the coercive side of the Sri Lankan state, including the growth and increased power of the military, controlled by the political class. The degree to which parliamentary mechanisms are utilised to oversee the security sector is marginal.
- Coercive activities have had a devastating impact on the Tamil population. Atrocities, mass displacement and the impact of war on social and economic infrastructure have contributed to the exclusion of a significant section of the population.
The twin actions of penetration of capitalist relations and state coercion have resulted in insecurity for a large part of the population. The current orthodoxies on state reform have not explored the links between these reforms and the interests of the socially excluded
- If Sri Lanka is to begin a discussion on new ideas on security, discourse needs to be grounded in a range of issues that generate insecurity for the majority of the population. The dialogue needs to go beyond narrow technocratic ideas of security sector reform and focus on structures and processes that generate insecurity.
- If devolution is to be something more than an effort to consolidate the power of the elite in the periphery, and to improve the situation of the socially excluded, it has to go beyond the present focus on institutional design.
- Institutions that are meant to regulate the behaviour of the state will only become effective when social groups affected by the institutions become organised and begin to make use of them.
