Abstract
Over the last two decades, public-private partnership policy has been adopted in developing countries to a lesser degree than in industrialised countries. This paper argues that this policy has been diffused to developing countries like Sri Lanka with coercion from international aid-granting organisations through conditionalities attached to financial assistance. It details the country-specific challenges faced by Sri Lanka in responding to conditionalities as it has sought to implement this policy. Drawing on policy diffusion theory the paper develops a framework to be used in analysing the issues under investigation.
Notes
1 For example UNP was in government during 1965-70 and 1977-94. The SLFP has been in government in 1956-65, 1970-1977 and, since 1994, has been a major party in the United People's Freedom Alliance government.
2 According to Kovach & Lansman (Citation2006: 19), 20% of all World Bank conditions for poor countries are economic policies. Half of these impose some sort of privatisation and trade liberalisation conditions. Further, 43% of all IMF structural conditions focus on economic policy reforms. Of these, half are privatisation related.
3 In 2008, PSIDC was merged with the National Development Trust Fund (NDTF) and SME bank in order to expand the operation of Lanka Putra Bank.
4 The public sector comparator calculates the net present cost of the hypothetical public provision of the infrastructure and the services (English, Citation2006).
5 In the period 1971-89, JVP attempted twice to capture state power by creating uncertainty in Sri Lanka. Since the early 1990s JVP has been operating as a democratic political party.