| Title | The Changing Face of Electoral Politics in Sri Lanka (1994-2004) |
| Imprint | Marshall Cavendish Academic |
| Specifications | 152 mm X 227 mm, 200 pp, Perfect Binding, 350 gms |
| Authors | Laksiri Jayasuriya |
| Target Audience | Political analysts, academics and researchers interested in electoral politics, and all those interested in Sri Lanka. |
| Price (US) | US$ 22.00  |
Sri Lanka has been through turbulent
times, overcome by a devastating civil war, yet able to sustain a system of
parliamentary government. This study recounts a critical decade of electoral
politics in Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2004, situated in the context of a militant
ethnic conflict, that includes four General Elections and a Presidential
election. The new politics of Sri Lanka, evident in this decade, is marked by a
party system that is increasingly fractured, a politics increasingly divided
over symbolic cultural issues, and the tension inherent in a mixed executive
system. The coalitional dynamics of this new politics represents a decisive
break with the welfarist politics of the post-independence period evolved within
the Westminster system, a legacy of the colonial past. In a Postscript,
Jayasuriya examines the politics of tsunami as it impacts on the critical fault
lines of Sir Lankan politics in the North, East and South as well as the
neo-geopolitics. This volume will be essential to anyone interested in Sri
Lanka's unique experience as a third-world country with democratic political
processes and instruments for over five decades.
Professor
Jayasuriya...has marshalled the facts and statistics of a complex period and
analysed these with an interdisciplinary perspective.
- Dr Nimal
Sanderatne, Former Chairman, Bank of Ceylon and Director of Economic Research,
Central Bank, Sri Lanka
...will be invaluable to those seeking to
understand these complexities and to those who wish to have a guide to the
probable future course of politics in the island nation.
- Professor Peter
Reeves, FAAH Coordinator, South Asian Studies, National University of
Singapore
This work is thorough, informative, and free of partisan bias
... There is no comparable work on this important subject, which has wider
implications beyond the borders of Sri Lanka.
I thoroughly recommend
this analysis to all who are interested in the politics of ethnically diverse
and complex societies.
- Dr James Jupp, AM FASSA, Australian National
University (author of Sri Lanka: A Third World Democracy)
About the
Author
Laksiri
Jayasuriya
AM, is Emeritus Professor at the University of
Western Australia (UWA). Currently Honorary Senior Research Fellow at UWA, he
has held a variety of academic and public appointments in the UK, USA, Australia
and Sri Lanka. A graduate of the University of Sydney, Professor Jayasuriya
obtained his PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science
(LSE), UK in 1959. Prior to coming to UWA, he was Dean/Social Sciences at the
University of Ceylon, Colombo, Sri Lanka, in addition to holding the Foundation
Chair of Sociology and Social Welfare. He held the Foundation Chair of Social
Work and Social Administration at UWA for over 20 years until his retirement in
1992. At the University, he also served as the Director of the Centre for Asian
Studies, and was the Chair of the West Australia Inter-University Consortium on
Development Studies. He was awarded on Hon. D. Litt by the University of
Colombo, Sri Lanka and also made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the
Social Sciences.
In Australia, he has been involved in a range of
community activities in the field of social policy, welfare and particular
ethnic affairs where he has had a major involvement. In addition to research
and writing extensively on multiculturalism and ethnic affairs policy, he has
served on numerous government bodies and Committees of Inquiry.
Key
titles among his extensive list of publications include
Welfarism and Politics in Sri Lanka,
as well as the recent volume,
The Legacies of While Australia
(co-editor).
