The politics of market reform at a time of civil war: military fiscalism in Sri Lanka

This paper analyses the paradoxical story of growth/reform amidst civil war in a country. The civil war in Sri Lanka, the paper explains, has been of functional significance to the promotion of economic growth by mitigating the adverse social impact of the market reform agenda in the south of the country. The escalating military budget in the country during the civil war years between 1983 and the present has compensated for the contraction of the State due to market liberalisation and thus made the reform agenda politically viable.