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Is There a Conflict Between Growth and Welfarism? The Significance of the Sri Lanka Debate
Author(s) -
Osmani S.R.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
development and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-7660
pISSN - 0012-155X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7660.1994.tb00520.x
Subject(s) - welfarism , sri lanka , psychological intervention , economics , complementarity (molecular biology) , sustainability , welfare , critical appraisal , positive economics , development economics , public economics , socioeconomics , psychology , biology , ecology , medicine , genetics , alternative medicine , pathology , psychiatry , market economy , tanzania
This article seeks to derive some general lessons regarding the relationship between growth and welfarism by undertaking a reassessment of Sri Lanka's long experience with interventions in social spheres. While Sri Lanka has been hailed by many for pursuing the welfarist strategy with apparently spectacular results, several critics have recently suggested that she would have been better off by diverting resources away from welfare interventions towards investment for growth. They have argued that the interventions were not terribly effective anyway, and further that welfarism involved a conflict with growth which eventually undermined the very sustainability of welfarist strategy. This article contests these criticisms, and argues in its turn that the Sri Lankan experience offers a lesson not in the conflict but in the complementarity between growth and welfarism.