Abstract
The Caribbean forms part of Samuel P. Huntington’s second and third waves of transition to democracy.1 The English- speaking subset of the region, with one or two exceptions, has held democratic elections where the contestation for executive and legislative power has taken place since adult suffrage was first granted to Jamaica in 1944.2 Elections are held approximately every five years, with governments mostly serving their full terms. The 23 years between 1972 and 1994 have witnessed a flourishing of democratic freedoms guaranteed by the rule of law among all of these countries, but especially among those in the English-speaking sub-region. On a scale of one to seven, one being the highest, the countries there averaged political rights and civil liberties scores of 1.9 and 2.3, respectively, during this period.3 These scores, which rank these countries significantly above the global average, underscore the fact that they represent one of the most developed zones of democracy in the world.
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Notes
See Raymond Gastil, Freedom in the World: Political Rights and Civil Liberties, (New York: Freedom House, 1972–95).
See Melvin Claxton, ‘Antigua Hotbed of Corruption: Top Officials Linked to Guns, Drugs, and Murder’, Virgin Islands Daily News (3 March 1994 ).
See Anthony P. Maingot, ‘Offshore Secrecy Centers and the Necessary Role of States: Bucking the Trend’, Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, Vol. 37, No. 4 (1995), p. 3.
See British Information Services, New York, The Problem of Drugs in the Caribbean: A European Union Initiative’ (September 1996). Also, see Baytoram Ramharack, ‘Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering in the Caribbean ‘Mini’-States and Dependent Territories: The US Response’, Round Table, Vol. 335 (1995), pp. 319–41;
Ivelaw L. Griffith, ‘Drugs and Security in the Commonwealth Caribbean’, Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, Vol. 21, No. 2 (1993), pp. 70–102;
Rensselaer W. Lee, III, ‘Global Reach: The Threat of International Drug Trafficking’, Current History (May 1995), pp. 207–12;
and Clifford E. Griffin, Democracy and Neoliberalism in the Developing World: Lessons From the Anglophone Caribbean (Aldershot: Avebury Publishers, 1997), esp. ch 7–10.
See Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye, Transnational Relations and World Politics (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1971), p. xii.
Larry Rohter, ‘Impact of NAFTA Pounds Economies of the Caribbean’, New York Times (30 January 1997), pp. Al, A4.
Not only does power asymmetry reflect the lack of success among Caribbean banana producers to penetrate US markets and underscore their difficulties in maintaining preferential access to European markets, but it also explains the success of companies such as Chiquita at playing the influence peddling game. For example, Lindner and his top executives reputedly began to funnel more than $US500 000 into the Democratic National Committee on 12 April 1996, the day after US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor agreed to plead Chiquita’s case at the WTO. See Michael Weisskopf and Viveca Novak, `The Busy Back-Door Men’, Time (31 March 1997 ), p. 40;
also William Safire, `Bananagate’, New York Times (26 March 1997), p. A19.
See US Department of State, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report 1996; interview conducted at the US Information Agency, Bridgetown, Barbados (August 1996); Government of Nevis, Ministry of Tourism, Trade, Industry, Planning and Development Memorandum (10 October 1996); also Government of the British Virgin Islands, Memorandum (22 January 1997).
See Louis Kraar, `The Drug Trade’, Fortune, (20 June 1988), pp. 27–38.
See Phil Williams and Ernesto U. Savona, (eds), The United Nations and Transnational Organized Crime, ( London: Frank Cass, 1996 ), p. 21.
See Douglas Farah, ‘Caribbean Key to US Drug Trade’, Washington Post (23 September 1996), pp. Al, A9.
Quoted in Melvin Claxton, `V.I. Drugs Linked to Antigua: Cops Pin Crime Rise on Smuggled Dope’, Virgin Islands Daily News (3 March 1994 ).
See Melvin Claxton, `Drug Sealers Prosper in Antigua: Tentacles Stretch From Colombia to V.I.’, Virgin Islands Daily News (4 March 1994 ).
See Government of Antigua and Barbuda, Statistical Yearbook of Antigua 1988 (St Johns, 1988), pp. 46–54.
See Richard Cox, ‘EC Official: Drugs Infesting Region’, New York Carib News, 28 May 1996, p. 3. Given the huge increase in the volume of trafficking and enormous sums of money involved, one could assume that the costs of drug interdiction have doubled since the early 1990s.
See P.A. Penfold, ‘Fighting Drugs in the Caribbean: A Regional Approach’, Courier, No. 161, (January-February 1997 ), pp. 10–12.
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© 2000 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Griffin, C.E. (2000). Democracy and Political Economy in the Caribbean. In: Griffith, I.L. (eds) The Political Economy of Drugs in the Caribbean. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230288966_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230288966_7
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