South Asia Faces the Future: Illiberalism and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka

Issue Date January 2002
Volume 13
Issue 1
Page Numbers 84-98
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Irresponsible leadership and ill-designed institutions have made this island republic prey to a bitter and violent ethnic conflict that is threatening to undermine democracy itself.

About the Author

Neil DeVotta is professor of politics and international affairs at Wake Forest University and the author of From Ethnocracy to Kakistocracy: Sri Lanka’s Pathway to Ruin (forthcoming).

View all work by Neil DeVotta

Further Reading

Volume 32, Issue 1

Sri Lanka: The Return to Ethnocracy

The return to power, via elections, of the Rajapaksa family signals the consolidation of a Sinhalese Buddhist ethnocracy. But there are reasons to hope it will not take a turn…

Volume 31, Issue 3

South Korea’s Democratic Decay

Although South Korea is praised for its success at fighting covid-19, the triumph came at a cost to rights and privacy, and is drawing attention away from a larger drift…

Volume 8, Issue 1

Sri Lanka: Surviving Ethnic Strife

Read the full essay here.