ABSTRACT
Mainstream development in Sri Lanka has long been spearheaded by discourses about community, with the latter often being positioned as the motor of progress. The advent of participatory discourses about empowering the people seems to take this apparent drive for democracy in development practice a step further, leaving open the possibility of many different forms of group and individual effort. The emergence of a participatory element in the authoritative discourses of development in Sri Lanka and elsewhere should undoubtedly be hailed as a good thing. The mainstream adoption of participatory discourse entails some important repositioning of both the subjects and the objects of development. Contemporary nationalists have contended that this ideal village community was undermined through colonial contact. The 'poor', in short, are not really empowered at all but are ushered into a new form of dependency.
