Jamaica is not an easy country for Latin Americanists to understand. As a recently independent, English-speaking, Protestant nation with a predominantly African population, Jamaica stands in contrast to the traditional nations of Latin America. Its stable parliamentary system of government also differs from the Latin American political norm. Yet for all its distinctive features, Jamaica is a poor, developing country which has increasingly chosen to cast its lot with Latin America, and students of Latin America are being called on to interpret Jamaican reality.
No one is better qualified to assist in this effort than Carl Stone. A professor of political science at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies, Stone is not only a prolific author of academic books and articles, but a widely read and respected columnist and public opinion specialist for the Daily Gleaner, Jamaica’s leading newspaper. Never one to avoid controversy, in Class, State, and Democracy in Jamaica he attempts to strike a balance between the extreme interpretations of Jamaican politics. His work rejects the Marxist criticisms of many of his academic colleagues, as well as the notion implicit in current U.S. policy under the Reagan administration that conservative Prime Minister Edward Seaga represents the island’s salvation. In the introduction, the author declares that he hopes his book will “clarify many areas of confusion about Jamaica generated by polemical leftist writings, the purpose of which has been self-serving, and nicely packaged conservative propaganda on the virtues of Jamaican society and politics which better characterize aspirations than reality” (p. xiv).
The central task Stone sets out for himself is to explain how democracy has flourished under difficult conditions, namely underdevelopment, widespread poverty, and growing domestic political violence. The polarization and chaos of the last 15 years notwithstanding, Stone assures the reader that democracy remains firmly entrenched in Jamaica. His explanation of this apparent enigma begins with a brief discussion of the English-speaking Caribbean as a Third World region where democracy and capitalism have both survived and then enters into a detailed analysis of Jamaican politics and society. Following a chapter on the historical roots of contemporary Jamaica, succeeding chapters analyze the country’s political economy, where Stone emphasizes the disjuncture between attenuated economic development and rapid political mobilization; the party system and political culture with its firm commitment to Western political values; the expansion of the public sector which triggered a struggle over “big government” and Seaga’s privatization campaign; changing labor relations; the evolving nature of public opinion, which features a subset of undecided voters who are the key to elections; and the political polarization which has dominated Jamaican politics since 1972 when Michael Manley and the People’s National Party assumed power.
While quick to recognize weaknesses, Carl Stone is optimistic about the prospects for democracy in Jamaica. Among the factors to which he attributes its vitality are the country’s multiple-class party system, a firmly democratic political culture, and effective political institutions. One is troubled by the author’s heavy dependence on his own work in arriving at these conclusions, but his analysis is rich with insights into Jamaican politics. As such it is required reading for Latin Americanists seeking to understand Jamaica and for United States foreign policy makers.
