Caribbean Sovereignty, Development and Democracy in an Age of Globalization by Linden Lewis

Author:Linden Lewis [Lewis, Linden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General, Globalization, Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, Social Science, Regional Studies, Developing & Emerging Countries
ISBN: 9781136274329
Google: KqH1OV_PiUsC
Goodreads: 16667762
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

Throughout this chapter I have sought to argue that to interpret the process of development as a neutral phenomenon is particularly dangerous because the development process has embedded in it some uncontested assumptions that can mask class and racial variables, which can make that process more difficult. I have further sought to use the concept of the moral economy and to show that the processes of development and modernity, from colonialism to globalization, are embedded in certain cultural and normative practices. In the case of Trinidad and Tobago, I have demonstrated that, when the problem was conceived as white ownership and foreign domination, the policies of industrialization by invitation, instead of enlarging the cake for more distribution, actually grew the cake but still restricted distribution and entrenched the elites that dominated the economy.

The change in strategy of the 1970s and early 1980s to economic nationalism and the attempt to increase the participation of the two ethnic groups in the process had limited success, since it did not factor in the additional variables necessary for an expansion in the opportunity structure. Many more Indo Trinidadian enterprises emerged and survived compared to Afro Trinidadian enterprises. The policies of the late 1980s to the present can be characterized as the era of the neoliberal paradigm and a renewed partnership between the state, local, and foreign capital, with a hint of populism in the post–2001 period. The contradictions of race and class remain a major axis around which any development plans get felt and interpreted. I have sought to demonstrate that one of the major actors in this process is the state and since the state is a site of class and ethnic contestation, then the outcome of development policies can actually reinforce the same class and racial divisions that it was intended to remedy.

There has been major refocusing of policies between market-led and state-led initiatives, and the outcomes seem to be the same. The state as presently configured is a creation of Western liberal democracy, and trust is a major element for the operation of the state. “This trust involves an essential public belief that the political process can be used to pursue the visions of differing social interests and that institutional rules provide for transparency and accountability in the formulation of public policy. . . . Trust makes possible and encourages the pursuit of collective political objectives of principle and policy, rather than a politics of narrow materialism and self interest” (Berman 2006: 6). When, however, in the moral economy, there are no norms and values that promote this trust, they become undermined by “the particularistic ties of individuals and fractions, clientelism and cronyism, and institutionalized bias, opaque decision making, and special deals and preferential access to public goods” (Berman 2006: 7).

In Trinidad and Tobago the contestation for state power is conducted along racial lines, and the quest to “get votes” results in a certain amount of clientelism. Within the moral economy, the norms and mores have not been so cultivated to produce a political system that cultivates the public trust across racial lines.

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