Description
The challenges faced by Commonwealth Caribbean democracies particularly in the past 20 years has forced a reckoning with how the Westminster model of government has served the needs of these small states. Crime, corruption and struggling economies operating in a globalised world have brought into sharp relief the threat to once-stable democracies.
Beyond Westminster in the Caribbean analyses Westminster governance in the post-independence Caribbean and reflects on the weaknesses of the model, the absence of a will to change despite the deficiencies and proposals for the way forward. Drawing on the contributions of distinguished scholars, prominent serving politicians and a sitting prime minister, the book offers a critical review of the state of Caribbean constitutions and a frank discussion of whether these small states can weather the threats that have presented themselves since the end of the Cold-War and the rise of neoliberalism. Can the Westminister model survive and thrive in the contemporary Caribbean, or is it time to move beyond Westminster?
About the Authors
Brian Meeks is Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at Brown University. A political scientist whose work has centred on the theory of revolution, comparative Central American and Caribbean politics; Caribbean thinkers and political thought as well as hegemony, democracy and the state in theory and practice, Professor Meeks has published several books and made numerous contributions to scholarly journals across political science, history, political economy, sociology, Africana studies, Caribbean studies and Latin American studies.
Kate Quinn is a lecturer in Caribbean History at the UCL Institute of the Americas whose work takes a regional and comparative approach to the Caribbean that bridges the Anglophone and the Hispanic parts of the region. Previously, she headed the Caribbean programme at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, School of Advanced Study, which she joined as a Post-Doctoral Fellow and subsequently Lecturer in Modern History in 2005. She served for many years on the Committee of the Society for Caribbean Studies and was Chair of the Society from 2012 to 2014.
Contents
Preface: Questioning Westminster
Brian Meeks
Acronyms and Abbreviations
- Introduction: Beyond Westminster in the Caribbean
Kate Quinn
- Good Governance or Penance: Enhancing Westminster in the Caribbean
Cynthia Barrow-Giles
- Are Commonwealth Caribbean Parliaments Now the Least Dangerous Branch of Government?
Derek O’Brien
- Beyond Westminster in the Caribbean: A Perspective on the Regional Project
Patsy Lewis
- Westminster Politics: Democratic Practice and Social Constraints – The Jamaican Experience
Peter Phillips
- Challenges for Good Governance within the Westminster Framework
Bruce Golding
- The Quest for Constitutional Reform in St Vincent and the Grenadines
Ralph Gonsalves
- The Westminster Model and the Collapse of the Postcolonial Order
Tennyson S.D. Joseph
- Westminster Shackled: State Building, State Weakness, and the Democracy Deficit in the Anglophone Caribbean
Clifford E. Griffin
- Towards a New Democracy in the Caribbean: Local Empowerment and the New Global Order
Percy C. Hintzen
Contributors
Index
