Public Administration in a Developing Economy in Democratic Transition – Sri Lanka
Current Projects
• Public Administration in a Developing Economy in Democratic
Transition – Sri Lanka
GV Research Fellow Professor
S W R de A Samarasinghe and GV Consultant Mr.
Palitha Elkaduwa who served in senior positions in the Sri Lanka
Administrative Service (SLAS) for over thirty years are taking a
critical look at Sri Lanka’s public administration that employs
- excluding the security services and police, education and heath
– over 500,000 (7% of the labour force) people. The public
administration plays a major role in development in a country where
the state plays an active role in the economy. Public administration
also faces the challenges of coping with a fractious polity ravaged
by a civil war that lasted one generation and a democratic political
system that has politicized the administration in the past thirty
years. Most important the country needs an efficient public administration
that can deliver for the 21st century.
