Is the English-speaking Caribbean (commonly known as the CARICOM region) a bastion of Western-style democracy in an otherwise often turbulent and dictatorial Third World? Many would respond affirmatively, pointing out that the area’s legacy of British (Westminster) parliamentarianism tends to immunize it against the authoritarian politics and institutionalized violence frequently found in developing countries. Young and Phillips, however, dare to be different, contending that the CARICOM nations—along with the former Dutch colony of Surinam—are indeed vulnerable to and have in recent years displayed growing evidence of militarization, which they define as “the tendency of a national military apparatus to assume increasing visibility, involvement, and control over the social lives and behavior of the citizenry. The process of militarization also encompasses military domination of national priorities and objectives at the expense of civilian institutions” (p. 3). In pursuing this thesis, the book relies heavily on case studies of the smaller Eastern Caribbean islands (Dion Phillips), Grenada (Ken Boodhoo), Surinam (Betty Sedoc-Dahlberg), Guyana (George Danns), and Belize (Alma Young). The Westminster system is hardly moribund in the Caribbean, as demonstrated recently by the overwhelming electoral victories scored by mainstream opposition parties in Barbados and Trinidad/Tobago. Nevertheless, militarization has become an element in the region’s political dynamics which demands attention not only on its own merits, but also because it raises some complex theoretical questions about the long-term viability of Anglo-American political models in small developing countries.
The contributors deserve special praise for not falling prey to the easy assumption that Caribbean militarization can be attributed mainly to the fact that the Reagan administration is afflicted with a Rambo mentality. Instead, while recognizing that Washington’s policies have functioned as accelerators, primary emphasis is placed on the indigenous roots of the process, the most frequently mentioned causal factor being the tensions generated by the inability or unwillingness of CARICOM governments to deal with the scourge of widespread poverty and underdevelopment. But much of this material, with the exception of Hilbourne Watson’s chapter on the evolution of the postcolonial authoritarian state, simply describes rather than analyzes. Specifically, the authors do not probe deeply enough to determine why the Westminster system has proven inadequate in confronting the area’s economic problems and thereby planted the seeds of militarization—are its repeated failures symptomatic of inherent deficiencies as a political vehicle for development in the contemporary Third World? Unfortunately, this theoretically crucial issue does not receive the intensive consideration that it deserves.
In the final analysis, then, the Young/Phillips book has done a major service in opening a dialogue on the phenomenon of Caribbean militarization and providing a great deal of useful background information. Realistically, however, much more discussion needs to occur before the last word is spoken.
