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Sri Lanka Populist Economic Policies
The Bandaranaike government actively expanded the public
sector and broadened domestic welfare programs, including pension
plans, medical care, nutrition programs, and food and fuel
subsidies. This social agenda threatened to drain the nation's
treasury. Other popular but economically unfeasible schemes
promoted by the Bandaranaike government included restrictions on
foreign investment, the nationalization of critical industries,
and land reform measures that nationalized plantations and
redistributed land to peasants.
When a Buddhist extremist assassinated Bandaranaike in
September 1959, the nation faced a period of grave instability.
The institution of parliamentary multiparty politics proved
strong enough to endure, however, and orderly, constitutional
actions resolved the leadership succession. The office of prime
minister passed to the minister of education, Wijeyananda
Dahanayake, who pledged to carry on the socialist policies of his
predecessor. But policy differences and personality clashes
within the ruling circle forced the new leader to dissolve
Parliament in December 1959. The short-lived Dahanayake
government, unable to hold Bandaranaike's coalition government
together, was defeated by the UNP in the March 1960 general
elections. The UNP won 33 percent of the seats in the lower
house, giving the party a plurality but not a majority.
Data as of October 1988
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