TY - JOUR
T1 - A Nationalism without Politics? The Illiberal Consequences of Liberal Institutions in Sri Lanka
AU - Spencer, Jonathan
PY - 2008/4
Y1 - 2008/4
N2 - This paper examines the relationship between developmental and cultural nationalism through an extended case study of the Sri Lankan conflict. It highlights, in particular, the deeply political process of the construction of nations in which the usual opposition between politics and an anti-political realm of the nation or culture itself plays an important role. The conflict, it is argued, has to be understood first of all in political terms, as the outcome of a specific history of electoral politics which, from the 1930s on, was structured along 'ethnic' lines. Appeals to the national or the cultural, which often appear in rhetorical opposition to the divisive forces of everyday politics, are nevertheless themselves products of the very political processes they claim to transcend.
AB - This paper examines the relationship between developmental and cultural nationalism through an extended case study of the Sri Lankan conflict. It highlights, in particular, the deeply political process of the construction of nations in which the usual opposition between politics and an anti-political realm of the nation or culture itself plays an important role. The conflict, it is argued, has to be understood first of all in political terms, as the outcome of a specific history of electoral politics which, from the 1930s on, was structured along 'ethnic' lines. Appeals to the national or the cultural, which often appear in rhetorical opposition to the divisive forces of everyday politics, are nevertheless themselves products of the very political processes they claim to transcend.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=42649084359&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/01436590801931561
DO - 10.1080/01436590801931561
M3 - Article
SN - 0143-6597
VL - 29
SP - 611
EP - 629
JO - Third World Quarterly
JF - Third World Quarterly
IS - 3
ER -