An Analytical Framework for the Study of Caribbean Public Enterprise

• Author: Courtney Blackman
• Pages: 66-83

THE PRACTICE OF ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT

66

In any study which seeks to assess performance and make

recommendations for improvement, the application of criteria is

unavoidable. Criteria can only be derived by means of theoretical

analysis utilizing deductive methods of reasoning to arrive at

normative conclusions. Given its limited scope, this study must

utilize existing theories of political economy, of organization and

of management from which to derive normative principles for

the assessment of public enterprise in the Caribbean. Our theory,

to be made relevant, must be constrained by Caribbean

circumstances and experience. Considerable reliance on the

section ‘Management in Development’ of the World Bank’s World

Development Report 1983 is acknowledged.1

The proposed analytical framework is predicated on four

issues:

Issues of political economy affecting the establishment of

public enterprises (PEs); issues affecting the organization of public

enterprises, especially in their relationship with government; issues

affecting the management and operation of public enterprises;

issues of liquidation and divestiture of public enterprises.

Out of this analytical exercise should flow criteria for assessing

the performance of public enterprises in the Caribbean.

4

AN ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK

FOR THE STUDY OF CARIBBEAN

PUBLIC ENTERPRISE

THE STUDY OF CARIBBEAN PUBLIC ENTERPRISE

67

Issues of Political Economy

Ideology

In developing a normative theory of public enterprise for the

Caribbean, we may confidently begin with the premise that the

goal of all governments is to maximize the incomes and general

welfare of their citizens. (If this is not the objective, then it ought

to be.) Public enterprise, then, is seen as an important policy

instrument for achieving that goal.

As in any theorizing in the social sciences, we cannot escape

consideration of the values of the subjects of our concern, and we

must suppress to the maximum extent possible the intrusion of

our personal values into the exercise. The values of governments

are expressed in their ideological positions — socialism in Guyana

and revolutionary Grenada, nationalism in Trinidad and Tobago,

socialism/nationalism in Jamaica, capitalism in the case of

Barbados, Antigua, and the other OEC states. We do not judge

these ideologies to be either good or bad. However, if we assume

minimum rationality, we should regard ideology as an input of

our value system, and not as the end of economic development.

If an ideologically inspired programme leads to the patent decline

in incomes and general welfare, it will, presumably, be abandoned

or adjusted. There is certainly a strong motivation on the part of

democratic governments to place economic development above

ideology as a goal, since the impoverishment of the population

through the pursuit of ideological goals per se would lead to defeat

at the polls or to some other dramatic form of social protest.

Public enterprise may be viewed as an instrument of policy in

pursuit of the primary goal of economic development. The extent

to which it is employed is determined by the prevailing ideology.

It will obviously be used more in socialist Guyana than in capitalist

Barbados. At any rate, the effectiveness of public enterprise will

depend upon the economic circumstances surrounding its