ABSTRACT
The United National Party (UNP) came to power promising economic development and improved employment opportunities. It attributed mass discontent to the socialist policies of the previous left-wing regime and under the rubric of the Open Economy opened the country to greater foreign investment and imports and tried to spur economic growth by dismantling the welfare state. These policies transformed the political, economic, and cultural character of the island and realigned class as well ethnic relations. The complex forces that came into play between the 1977 parliamentary elections and the explosion of violence in July 1983 illustrate that the conflict in the country was multipolar, not simply a bipolar clash between two ethnic groups.
