Abstract
This chapter examines the character of the Caribbean political economy shaped since its peripheralization (circa 1623 onwards). It focuses on the role of the state and the domestic bourgeoisie. This is analysed first within the British, and later the US, regional hegemonic structure. Beckford and others similarly used a holistic historical approach to highlight the distinctive features of the British Caribbean subregion. But they focus too intently on international factors and the exploitative nature of global capitalism in order to explain the region’s political-economic woes. Other scholars have opted instead to examine the domestic barriers blocking the construction of national market economies (St. Cyr 1980, Worrell 1982, Downes et al. 1990). Here, debate tends to centre on the character of endogenous production factors, the state of market relations, and the efficacy of regulatory infrastructures.
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Notes
See the contribution of A. G. Frank ‘The Forum: Hegemony and Social Change’, Mershon International Studies Review, Vol. 38, Supplement 2, October, 1994. p. 372.
See V. Harlow (1926), A History of Barbados 1625–1685.
See R. C. Batie (1991), ‘Why Sugar? Economic Cycles and the Changing Staples in the English and French Antilles 1624–1654’. p. 41, 42.
See E. Williams, ‘Capitalism and Slavery’, reprinted in H. Beckles and V. Shepherd (1991). p. 123.
See S. Drescher (1991) ‘The Decline Thesis of British Slavery Since Econocide’.
See B. C. Richardson (1992), The Caribbean in the Wider World 1492–1992. pp. 38–70.
See a recent example of this argument by R. Cameron (1993), A Concise Economic History of the World, pp. 41–43.
See K. G. Davies (1991), ‘The Origins of the Commission System in the West India Trade’, p. 103.
See A. G. Frank (1978) World Accumulation, 1492–1789, pp. 95–99.
See W. Rodney (1972) How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, p. 98.
See H. Beckles (1991), ‘Caribbean Anti-Slavery: The Self Liberation Ethos of Enslaved Blacks’, p. 363.
For more on the Jamaican economy during this period, see V. Shepherd (1991), ‘Trade and Exchange in Jamaica in the Period of Slavery’, pp. 111–119.
See J. R. Ward (1991), ‘The Profitability of Sugar Planting’, p. 88.
Here, he quotes L. J. Ragatz (1928) The Downfall of the Planter Class in the British Caribbean.
For more on Hong Kong’s recent development transitions, see S. Haggard and Tun-jen Cheng (1987), ‘State and Foreign Capital in the East Asian NICs’, in F. C. Deyo (ed.), The Political Economy of the New Asian Industrialism.
For a use of this term, see B. K. Gills (1989), ‘International Relations Theory and the Processes of World History: Three Approaches’, in H. C. Dyer and L. Mangasarian (eds), The Study of International Relations.
For more on the model, see W. A. Lewis, The Theory of Economic Growth, 1955; and his ‘Industrialization of the British West Indies’ op. cit.
For more on these issues see some of the contributions in N. C. Duncan (ed.) (1989), Public Finance and Fiscal Issues in Barbados and the O.E.C.S.
See P. Merton (1983), ‘The Changing Pattern of State Control in St Vincent and the Grenadines’, in F. Ambursley and R. Cohen (eds.) Crisis in the Caribbean.
See S. Ryan (1972), Race and Nationalism in Trinidad and Tobago?; and S. Craig ‘Background to the 1970 Confrontation in Trinidad and Tobago’ op. cit.
See Central Bank of Barbados, Balance of Payments of Barbados, 1993;
Bank of Jamaica, Statistical Digest, Monthly Reports, 1993 (January thru December);
and Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, Handbook of Key Indicators, July, 1989.
For more on bank debts in the Caribbean business sector, see J. Ferreira. (1993), ‘Financial Savings in the Caribbean’, A Research Paper, Bridgetown: Central Bank of Barbados;
and C. Bourne and R. Ramsaran (1988), Money and Finance in Trinidad and Tobago.
See H. Watson (1991) ‘Coalition Security Development’.
Watson cites a Casper Weinberger (1985) commissioned report by the National Defense University entitled Electronics Industry and the Caribbean Basin.
See D. Pantin (1991), ‘Techno-Industrial Policy in the Restructuring of the Caribbean’, in H. A. Watson (ed.). p. 62.
For example, see G. E. Mills (1970), ‘Public Administration in the Commonwealth Caribbean’, in Social and Economic Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 5–25;
and E. Jones (1976), ‘Bureaucracy as a Problem-Solving Mechanism’.
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© 1998 Don D. Marshall
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Marshall, D.D. (1998). The State and the Caribbean Development Experience. In: Caribbean Political Economy at the Crossroads. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230389861_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230389861_3
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