This
programme of research is undertaken in collaboration
with the Institute of Development Studies at the University
of Sussex and the Sussex European Institute. It is funded
by DFID under ESCOR Commissioned Research Programme
on Good Government.
The
promotion of democracy in developing and transitional
countries is a key policy objective of many Western
governments. However, policy makers and researchers
increasingly confront a crucial dilemma. Failures of
governance generate pressures for political reform,
including democratisation. But the same pressures, sometimes
aggravated by the transition to democracy itself, can
also lead to political breakdown and armed conflict.
The adoption of democratic constitutions may promote
popularly accountable and effective government and also
the peaceful resolution of societal conflicts. But equally,
the premature imposition of poorly prepared democratic
structures may re-ignite social antagonisms and undermine
the fragile basis of political authority.
The
purpose of the research is to arrive at a more precise
understanding of the conditions under which democracy
works well and of those in which it does not. The objective
of the project is to construct a framework for analysing
democratic experiments in four countries with a history
of violent conflict: Bosnia, Sri Lanka, South Africa
and Uganda.
The
early part of 1999 was spent on commissioning papers
for the study. ICES contributions to this project are
in two parts. The first part is a paper by Radhika Coomaraswamy
on "Politics of Institutional Change". This
is a contribution to a comparative study on this theme
covering four countries - Sri Lanka, Bosnia, Uganda
and South Africa. The second part is a detailed study
on the Electoral Systems of Sri Lanka focusing on proportional
representation. The following papers have been commissioned
for this study.
- Laksiri
Fernando: Development of the Electoral System and
Political Violence in Sri Lanka
- Rohan
Edirisinha: Representative Democracy and Election
Laws in Sri Lanka
- Kishali
Pinto Jayawardena: Proportional Representation,
Political Violence and the Participation of Women
in the Political Process
Sunil Bastian: Proportional Representation and Politics
of Structural Adjustment
The
other product of this project was the preparation of
a database on electoral statistics going back to the
period of legislative councils. This has been completed. |
