Politics and Society in the South-Eastern Caribbean

Abstract

What is noteworthy about the English-speaking islands of the southeastern Caribbean is the extent of the popular consensus underlying the political culture of their small populations, the predictability of the responses of their peoples and governments to political events, whether internal or external, and, together with their historical partners elsewhere in the region, the distinctiveness of their political culture when compared with other regions of the Third World. They total ten in number, nine constituting the Commonwealth Leeward and Windward Islands, and Barbados, the largest in size and resources (Table 4.1). Seven are full members of the sub-regional group, the Organization of East Caribbean States (OECS) — Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts-Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent. All are independent except Montserrat, which shares British dependency status with the British Virgin Islands (BVI), the only associate member of the OECS, and little but prosperous Anguilla. They share a history and heritage, even though the French-based patois of Dominica and St Lucia is common to that of their French departmental neighbours, and have assimilated the political norms and values of the former colonial power — Britain — to a remarkable degree.