{"id":67072,"date":"2017-06-19T06:48:05","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T13:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=67072"},"modified":"2017-06-19T06:48:05","modified_gmt":"2017-06-19T13:48:05","slug":"psychology-trumps-politics-in-the-sri-lankan-electoral-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/06\/19\/psychology-trumps-politics-in-the-sri-lankan-electoral-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychology trumps Politics in the Sri Lankan Electoral Process"},"content":{"rendered":"

R Chandrasoma<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

In Sri Lanka, the political behaviour of voters is largely governed by concerns rooted in their social identity. The latter \u2013 that which we call social identity \u2013 is a mind-set that is in place long before the challenge of political choice. This observation may seem counter-intuitive in the sense that the very foundation of democratic elections is the choice made by the voters on the basis of proffered programs that demand realistic decision-making. This is indeed the \u2018theory\u2019 but the \u2018praxis\u2019 is very different. It is not the program that matters but the attitude of the voter to the individuals or party (or parties) that vie for his allegiance. This \u2018attitude\u2019 is rooted in \u2018psychologisms\u2019 \u2013 factors that have little to do with rational political choice.\u00a0 Let us be more specific. Why does X vote for the UNP? Has X made a reasoned choice based on a comparative study of programs and promises? Is not political \u2018stances\u2019 largely an intuitive matter? The built-up rejection of MR is a case in point \u2013 where emotional opprobrium is harnessed to secure political ends. The vote against\u00a0 this successful leader was based on what we adverted to earlier – psychologisms – not politics.<\/p>\n

The na\u00efve belief that a comparison of the political programmes of the contending parties is prior to the act of voting is a widespread myth.\u00a0 The reality is that X votes for the UNP for reasons that are extra-political such as class affiliation and a distaste for the supposed nativisms of the masses. At the recent parliamentary elections young people in the metropolis voted overwhelmingly for the UNP. The na\u00efve explanation is that there was a mass movement to the right among the urban elite. The real reason had little to do with politics \u2013 it was the widely-held belief that the UNP under RW represented modernity while MR\u2019s party was the epitome of an old-fashioned system of strong-man politics. That MR ushered in a period of extraordinary political stability and economic well-being had little impact as a resentful mindset based on upbringing and class triumphed over objective assessment of the facts that truly matter.<\/p>\n

On this subject of choice-making, the Nobel Prize-Winning psychologist Kahaneman has made a signal contribution. Most thinking (and decision-making) is \u2018fast\u2019 in the sense that raw intuitions act as our guide. \u2018Slow Thinking\u2019 is a recent evolutionary development and is best seen in the argumentation of mathematics, logic and science. The salient point is that in all matters of practical life, decisions are made not on the basis of a deep (or logical) analysis of the facts but by \u2018spot on\u2019 thinking \u00a0that have raw intuitions or \u2018psychologisms\u2019 as their foundation. All this bodes ill for the claim of authenticity in future elections. Let us give an example \u2013 the Tamil population of Sri Lanka will vote for the party that is least inimical to the separatist agenda that they ardently espouse. Their voting will violate the principle of free choice as the psychology of separatism rules out meaningful participation in free and fair elections in a unified state. The same is true \u2013more or less \u2013 with regard to Muslim voters who place their religious identity as the keystone of whatever political affiliation they espouse. Few will disagree that such prior biases leads to a gross corruption of the foundations of participatory democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

R Chandrasoma In Sri Lanka, the political behaviour of voters is largely governed by concerns rooted in their social identity. The latter \u2013 that which we call social identity \u2013 is a mind-set that is in place long before the challenge of political choice. This observation may seem counter-intuitive in the sense that the very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-r-chandrasoma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}