Household entitlements during wartime: The experience of Sri Lanka

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Abstract
Conventional ways of viewing conflict as destructive and irrational have constrained the thinking of policy makers about the possibility of constructive intervention and development strategies during wartime. This paper, in looking at the experience of Sri Lanka, considers various policy choices, as well as their costs, open to some governments during times of strife. Evidence from Sri Lanka refutes the notion that government services cannot be effective in wartime while simultaneously drawing attention to the role that alternative societal structures play in alleviating human costs. This paper demonstrates that a complex network of providers of market, public, and civil entitlements can evolve in certain wartime contexts and identifies how the mode of warfare employed can create or destroy such a possibility. The study concludes that the opportunities for constructive policy making during wartime are greater— and the responsibilities of the agents at war broader—than is commonly thought.

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