Publication

While the ruling coalition strives for a two thirds majority in the legislature, which would permit the replacement of the Constitution, this paper argues that the main result of the upcoming election is already prefigured and portends a new cycle of conflict along the lines of identity politics. The paper concludes that the dominant ideologies on the Sinhala and Tamil sides prevent Sri Lanka’s adoption of the recognized contemporary Asian mechanisms of the management of diversity, thus preventing the country from fully integrating into and benefiting from the economic rise of Asia.