Constitution Proposals & V2025: A Double Deception?
Sumanasiri Liyanage
A couple of weeks ago, the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, tabled in the Parliament the recommendations of the steering committee on constitutional reforms. Prior to that six committee reports were tabled. It is good that all these documents in all three languages are now available in the web so that people who are interested in the subject can consult them. This article by any means does aim at a comprehensive analysis of these reports although such an effort would be extremely important as these documents would be the basis of the future supreme law of the island. So far the discussion has revolved round two issues, namely. (1) is this a unitary or federal constitution? and (2) will the changes introduced into the Article 9 of the present constitution water down the constitutional status of the Buddhism? The subject that I intend to discuss in this article is of course linked with the first issue. However, the level and degree of devolution, does not affect directly the basic argument of the present article. Here, my intention is to examine the nexus between devolution and development. First, I shall discuss, at somewhat abstract level, the impact of devolved state structure on economic development. In the second part of the article, the relevant constitutional proposals would be examined in relation to the government economic perspective document, V2025 that was released sometime back at a big ceremony at the BMICH.
I should emphasize my definition of economic development closely follows Dudley Sears’s well-known definition of development. It includes (1) a reasonable rate of growth; and (2) the reduction of poverty, unemployment and inequality from its existing levels. I would add to the list a third element, the maintenance of ecological balance at a reasonable level.
Decentralized/ devolved / federal state structure would impact on economic development in four ways. First, the setting up of a multiple tier state structure would invariably increase total government expenditure as new governmental units need staff recruitment, infrastructure, and payments and fringe benefits for newly added peoples’ representatives. As a well known public finance economist, Prof Ursula Hicks had pointed out ‘a single unitary constitution would almost certainly be cheaper to run’. However, the adoption of federal/ quasi-federal/ devolved state structure is a decision based primarily on non-economic considerations. Hence Prof Hicks adds: “The choice of a non-unitary constitution is evidence that the citizens of one area are not prepared to treat their co-citizens in another area entirely all fours with themselves, although at the same time they are willing to pool such fundamental public responsibilities as defence and external relations.”
The additional fiscal burden emanating from new state structures may be compensated at least partly by increasing governmental revenue if the provincial states are more effective in revenue collection than the central administration is. Similarly, the provincial governments may be cost-effective in case of program implementation especially due to proximity factor.
Secondly, it has been generally agreed that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority so that needs and aspirations of respective communities will receive due respect in decision-making. In other words, decisions should be taken at a local level if possible, rather than by a central authority. This principle of subsidiarity allows peoples’ direct engagement in decision-making on subjects that affects their life. Thus decision-making and responsibility go together.
Thirdly, as VitoTanzi has argued, “a decentralized system can become a surrogate for competition, bringing to the public sector some of the allocative benefits that a competitive markets brings to the private sector”. Hence, It may have positive impact on economic development as people can compare different economic policies adopted by respective local administration.
Finally, Decentralized/ devolved / federal state structure would help reducing regional economic disparities by minimizing center and urban bias in economic decision-making. However, to what extent these four principles would impact on economic development has to be examined by either analyzing the performance of the existing provincial council system or looking at the place and importance given to the proposed state structures in the new economic plan. This requires not abstract theorizing but the concrete analysis of the concrete situation.
Constitutional Proposals and V2025
