The Political Party System in Sri Lanka
The creation of coherent and durable political institutions is among the most vital and difficult of the challenges confronting the "developing" nations of the Third World. For the nation seeking political order through democratic processes and broad popular participation, the evolution of an institutionalized political party system is of crucial importance. I In Sri Lanka, the growth and institutionalization of a stable political party system over the brief span of less than four decades must rank among the most significant and impressive of the political achievements of that nation in the post-independence era. The foundation for a party system was laid in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) by the introduction of universal adult suffrage in 1931. In the following years, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) was founded in 1935 and the Communist Party (CP) in 1943. It was, however, the approach of independence from British