Charting Caribbean Development

Abstract

[...]economic conditions in the region have improved little during this entire period, especially for the poor majority. [...]nearly half of the chapters included in this volume were previously published elsewhere, with two chapters written in the mid-1980s and three chapters completed in the mid-1990s. [...]the tendency to equate development with economic growth is troublesome, especially since higher growth rates have sometimes coincided with expanding inequality and deteriorating living conditions for poor communities.

- Charting Caribbean Development, by Anthony Payne and Paul Sutton. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2001.

Caribbean governments have experimented with a wide range of development strategies during the past half century. Although each new approach was launched with considerable fanfare and championed as the best path toward rapid progress, the results have been uniformly disappointing. In fact, economic conditions in the region have improved little during this entire period, especially for the poor majority.

In this book, Anthony Payne and Paul Sutton review the development experience of the English-speaking Commonwealth Caribbean countries. Their central purpose is to describe and evaluate the economic strategies these countries have adopted since 1960. This includes import-substitution, export-promotion, democratic socialism, revolutionary populism, and market liberalism. The authors also survey the evolution of indigenous scholarship on the Caribbean, especially the writings of George Beckford, Lloyd Best, William Demas, Norman Girvan, W. Arthur Lewis, Alister Mclntyre, Davin Ramphall, and Clive Thomas. Scholarship on the region, it is argued, has frequently informed and influenced government policy.

Charting Caribbean Development begins with a series of country case studies. Two chapters are devoted to Trinidad and Tobago, with the first reviewing the country's early nationalist policies and the second chronicling a gradual shift toward neoliberalism. Jamaica is also the focus of two chapters as the democratic socialist model of the 1970s is contrasted with the market orientation of the 1980s. There are also separate chapters on the Grenadian revolution and the smaller eastern Caribbean nations of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, St. KittsNevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent.

Payne and Sutton then turn their attention to the international context of Caribbean development. The authors demonstrate how the campaign for regional economic integration, within the framework of the Caribbean Community, has been repeatedly undermined by conflicting national interests and a lack of political leadership. Caribbean-European relations are also examined. While focus is naturally placed on the British role in the region, especially within the framework of the Lomé Conventions, some attention is accorded relations with France, the Netherlands, and Spain. The often turbulent history of United States intervention in the region, especially during the Cold War period, is reviewed in a separate chapter.

Charting Caribbean Development offers a comprehensive overview of the economic strategies and contemporary history of the region. Payne and Sutton place their analysis within the context of the various phases in Caribbean development evident during the past four decades. The 1960s were characterized by considerable confidence in the 'modernizing potential' of industrial diversification. Political elites viewed the emergence of new manufacturing industries and entry into global markets as the surest path for economic progress. During the 1970s the pendulum swung toward the other extreme as governments sought to break their ties with global markets and pursue more autonomous national development. This was followed by a neoliberal 'counter-offensive' during the 1980s and the 'enforced embrace of the market'. This set the stage for the past decade, which the authors characterize as Overwhelmingly shaped by the forces of globalization and regionalism'. National policies are now largely the product of global imperatives, leaving Caribbean nations little latitude to chart their own futures.

Payne and Sutton's analysis of the earlier periods is stronger than their treatment of the past decade. In fact, nearly half of the chapters included in this volume were previously published elsewhere, with two chapters written in the mid-1980s and three chapters completed in the mid-1990s. Other than a short section in the book's introduction, the authors do not examine recent events in the region. A concluding chapter, bringing the reader up to date with contemporary developments and surveying current trends, would have been useful.

The authors' emphasis on the policies of national governments also raises some issues. There is a tendency to portray economic development in the Caribbean as a top-down process conceived and managed by political elites. The role of popular movements in influencing the course of events is given less attention. There is also a tendency to portray political leaders as genuinely searching for the most effective means to promote social and economic progress. Such a portrayal is hard to reconcile with the reality of power and patronage in the region. Improving the welfare of poor communities has rarely been a top priority for political elites. Greater attention to the role of the state in actually impeding social and economic progress would have strengthened the study. Such analysis has become central to contemporary research on development. Lastly, the tendency to equate development with economic growth is troublesome, especially since higher growth rates have sometimes coincided with expanding inequality and deteriorating living conditions for poor communities.

Despite these caveats, Payne and Sutton offer a comprehensive and effective overview of the 'shifting politics of development' in the Commonwealth Caribbean since independence. Charting Caribbean Development should be of interest to those seeking a basic introduction to the development experience of the region.