Consensus and Defection

Abstract

Tracing the course of a badly needed, initially quite promising, but ultimately aborted constitutional process in Sri Lanka, this chapter reveals several hazards of constitutional processes. A lengthy public participation exercise exposed divisions among the public and delayed the deliberative part of the process. A failure of political leadership to commit itself unequivocally to promoting constitutional change resulted in the vulnerability of the process and its proposals when defections began to appear. Delay in the process exacerbated that vulnerability when elections approached, and consensus proved to be reversible.