The Erosion of Social Capital in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Until the 1970s, Sri Lanka was often seen as a model for a third world democratic welfare state. However, its image as a model of development and democracy has been rapidly and severely tarnished over the 1980s and the 1990s. Recently, a number of studies have attempted to explain the reasons for Sri Lanka's fall from grace. According to these studies, Sri Lanka's recent history of underachievement and economic crisis can be attributed to the country's 25-year-old war, policy mistakes, an inefficient large public sector, and poor governance. In this study, I propose to argue that the erosion of 'productive' social capital has also played an important role in the sorry tale of development in Sri Lanka. To this end I investigate how its accumulated stocks of productive social capital have been eroded. IntroductionUntil the 1970s, Sri Lanka was often regarded as a model third world democratic welfare state. After the Second World War, successive governments in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) gave priority to the universal provision of education, health care and securing a minimum level of consumption for all citizens. There was remarkable progress in education, health care and nutrition. All this made Sri Lanka in the 1960s a shining exception among developing countries. Indeed its human development indicators at that time were not far behind those even of developed Western countries. Last but not least, Sri Lanka had a deep-rooted parliamentary democracy. Not surprisingly, optimism was abundant:

Diasporic mobilization and post-war uplift: an inquiry into the global Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora's influence in post-war Sri Lanka

“…The World Bank (2011) simply defines social capital as "the norms and networks that enable collective action [that is] critical for poverty alleviation and sustainable human and economic development." Bandaralage (2009) goes even further to discuss the varying components of social capital such as "trust" and "institutions" that are inter-related and mutually reliant to become social assets in development discourse. Cheran (2007) finds that the social capital fostered through Tamil transnational networks, offered more than just diasporic financial flow.…”

Diasporic mobilization and post-war uplift: an inquiry into the global Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora's influence in post-war Sri Lanka

“…The World Bank (2011) simply defines social capital as "the norms and networks that enable collective action [that is] critical for poverty alleviation and sustainable human and economic development." Bandaralage (2009) goes even further to discuss the varying components of social capital such as "trust" and "institutions" that are inter-related and mutually reliant to become social assets in development discourse. Cheran (2007) finds that the social capital fostered through Tamil transnational networks, offered more than just diasporic financial flow.…”