The Presence and Representation of Minority Interests: A Framework for Gendering the Policy Agenda in the Jamaican Legislature

Abstract

This chapter highlights the importance of having women physically present in parliaments, using Pitkin’s (The concept of representation, 1967) view of representation as acting in the interests of others (1967) and Philips’ (The politics of presence: The political representation of gender, ethnicity and race, 1995) theory that the presence of different groups will transform the political agenda.

Descriptively, the Jamaican legislature lacks diversity as there is a noticeable absence, or very few members when present, of marginalised and/or minority groups such as women and members of the disabled, LGBT and religious communities. In terms of substantive representation, some anecdotal evidence is available that representation of marginalised and/or minority groups do take place, inside and outside of the Houses of Parliament. In parliament, legislators and other critical actors such as women NGOs successfully lobbied for legislation favourable to women, children, the elderly and the disabled, while on the outside, organised groups advocated, unsuccessfully to date, for the recognition of rights of members of the LGBT community. The chapter concludes that some element of popular control will always be evident in representational politics as the ‘majority rule’ is one of the basic features of democracy, but that presence of minority groups is important for fair representation.