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F.S.J. Ledgister Michael Manley and Jamaican Democracy, 1972-1980: The Word is Love. Lanham m d: Lexington Books, 2014. xii + 129 pp. (Cloth us$ 75.00)
Fragano Ledgister's Michael Manley and Jamaican Democracy is a welcome foray into what one hopes will become a new wave of literature reflecting on the Manley regime of the 1970s and the severe social and political conflicts that erupted when it sought to reform the Jamaican class and racial social structures inherited from the colonial period. As the title suggests, Ledgister focuses less on Manley's international dimensions (for a New International Economic Order and against Apartheid, for instance) and more on his personal philosophy and the politics of his declared "Democratic Socialist" government. This he does mainly by reviewing Manley's books (The Politics of Change, A Voice at the Workplace, and Struggle in the Periphery) and critiquing the respective roles of Manley's nemesis and successor as prime minister, Edward Seaga, and the erstwhile leader of the party's left wing, D.K. Duncan. The results provide a critical sketch of the country's challenges in addressing urgent demands to improve the welfare of the poor in the face of adversely shifting terms of trade and in the teeth of the...