Department of Political Science

Dr. A. M. Navarathna Bandara is a respected scholar whose academic career began at the University of Peradeniya as an Assistant Lecturer in Economics in 1974. He joined the department as a permanent faculty member in 1977. He obtained his M.A. from the University of Peradeniya in 1982 and earned his PhD from the University of York in 1993 with his thesis titled Management of Ethnic Sectionalist Conflict, the Big Neighbor Syndrome, and the Devolution of Government. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2003, Professor in 2008, and Senior Professor in 2010. Over the course of his career, he held several key academic and administrative positions, including Head of the Department of Political Science (2008- 2012) and Dean of the Faculty of Arts (2012–2015), before retiring in 2015. At the national level, Dr. Bandara contributed significantly to public policy making, serving on the Official Languages Commission, the National Integration Programme Unit, and the Presidential Task Force on National Integration, as well as chairing the National Youth Policy initiative. Some of his publications include:

• Ethno-political dynamics in the persistent crises of post-war Sri Lanka (2025). Reflections on the continuing crises of post-war Sri Lanka, 1-29.
• Ethnic politics and democratic process in Sri Lanka (2023). Democracy and Democratisation in Sri Lanka. Vol. 1, 281-329.
• Thirty years of devolution: An evaluation of the workings of Provincial Councils in Sri Lanka (2019). With Amarasinghe, Ranjith, Asoka Gunawardena, Jayampathi Wickramaratne, and N. Selvakkumaran (Eds). Institute of Constitutional Studies.
• Local government system in Sri Lanka: A historical overview (2017). In N. S. Cooray & S. Abeyratne (Eds.), Decentralization and development of Sri Lanka within a unitary state (pp. 19–32). Springer Nature.
• History and context of public administration in Sri Lanka (2013). In M. Sabharwal & E. M. Berman (Eds.), Public administration in South Asia: India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan (pp. 471–486). CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.
• Provincial public administration and public service (2010). In R. Amarasinghe et al. (Eds.), Twenty two years of devolution (pp. 163–192). Institute of Constitutional Studies.
• The politics of devolving power (2010). In R. Amarasinghe et al. (Eds.), Twenty two years of devolution (pp. 33–54). Institute of Constitutional Studies.
• Ethnic relations and state crafting in post-independence Sri Lanka (2000). In D. L. Weligamage & C. A. Tisdell (Eds.), Sri Lanka’s development since independence: Socio-economic perspectives and analysis (pp. 113–126). Nova Science Publishers.
• Management of ethnic secessionist conflict: The big neighbour syndrome (1995). Dartmouth.