Political processes in the Caribbean, 1970s to 2000

Abstract

By the 1960s, every government in the Caribbean — whether independent or not — faced two crucial questions related to viability and sustainability. First, could the economies of these small nations — and especially the parliamentary democratic ones — handle the social tensions engendered by high rates of unemployment, declining agricultural production, urbanization, the mobilization of demands by both unionized and non-unionized labour and, crucially, the expectations of highly educated but unemployed youths? Second, and directly related to this question of economic viability, was a political question: could the political institutions inherited from the colonial period handle the kinds of ideological change being demanded by an increasingly radicalized youth? To them it was not enough to reform the institutions, they were demanding a complete shift in the social-class and racial composition of the State and the economy.