Changing ideas of social policy -- Rethinking social development -- Marshall and citizenship theorising -- The formative phase of social development in Sri Lanka -- Welfarism and democratisation in the late colonial state (1931-48) -- Consolidation of the welfare state -- Retreat from the welfare state -- Reclaiming social democracy: charting a "third way" for Sri Lanka -- Postscript: taking stock after the fall of Sri Lanka's Berlin Wall.