Introduction: Beyond Westminster in the Caribbean

• Author: Kate Quinn
• Profession: 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
• Pages: 1-17

1 Introduction:

Beyond Westminster in the Caribbean

Kate Quinn

This book examines the experience of democratic governance in the

Commonwealth Caribbean in the last few decades of crisis and change.

The need to revisit old questions about the form and, more importantly,

substance of Westminster-style democracy in the Caribbean is all the

more urgent given the radical shifts in the global environment that have

had serious consequences for governance in these vulnerable small

states. The late Norman Girvan summed this up most incisively in his

reflections on the ‘existential threats’ that pose ‘systemic challenges

to the viability of [Caribbean] states as functioning socio-economic-

ecological-political systems’. The contemporary Caribbean, Girvan

argued, faces ‘an overlapping and interconnected series of challenges’

deriving from ‘acute climate change-related stress’ and:

(a) the acute economic stress arising out of erosion of trade preferences

and the failure to develop a new “insertion” into the global economy;

(b) fiscal stress due to unsustainable debt burdens and the impact

of the global economic crisis; and (c) the seeming incapacity of

governments to control the impact of transnational crime….1

To these challenges might be added the uncertainties arising from

recent changes in the global political environment, including the

election of an unpredictable and openly anti-immigration president of

the United States (US) in November 2016; and Britain’s vote to leave

the European Union, the consequences of which may have profound

implications for the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of

states whose primary trade relations are bound up with European

treaties now being unpicked by the former colonial powers.

The Brexit referendum and resultant political tremors at the heart of

the ‘original’ Westminster system make a re-examination of models

of governance all the more timely. The 52 per cent ‘leave’ vote on June

23, 2016 catalysed a series of debates touching on the fundamentals

of Westminster parliamentary democracy. These debates centred

on questions of representative versus participatory democracy, the

BEYOND WESTMINSTER

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supremacy of Parliament, the utility and authority of referenda, the role

of the judiciary, national sovereignty and the relationship with a supra-

national and ‘unelected’ regional entity. All of these subjects can find echoes

in recent Caribbean political debate, while Caribbean political leaders may

well find sobering lessons in the consequences of elite detachment from

marginalised groups now vocally asserting the will of ‘the people’.

In recent years, Caribbean governments have faced their own series of

challenges that have raised direct questions about the functioning and

resilience of the Westminster model in the Caribbean context. Trinidad and

Tobago, St Lucia, and Dominica, for example, have all experienced political

corruption scandals in recent years, raising familiar questions about

democratic accountability, (lack of) parliamentary oversight, clientelism,

and the over-reach of prime ministerial authority. The proclamation of the

notorious ‘Section 34’ on the 50th anniversary of Trinidadian independence

gave added pungency to this particular scandal: the early proclamation of

this section of the Indictable Proceedings Act allowed key party financiers

to file petitions to have outstanding charges of fraud and money-laundering

levied against them dismissed.2 In Dominica, opposition demonstrations

protesting the dubious dealings of the government in the sale of passports

were denounced by the prime minister as an ‘attempted coup’;3 the resultant

arrests of senior members of the opposition exemplify an alarming process

of authoritarian creep within the framework of Westminster democracy.

In Guyana, the constitutional crisis resulting from the suspension of

Parliament in November 2014, ultimately led to an historic defeat of the

incumbent regime, bringing to an end 23 consecutive years of one-party

rule. The defeated party’s initial refusal to accept the election results and

boycott of the swearing-in ceremony of new President David Granger,

however, suggests that Guyana’s ‘democratic contradiction’ is far from

being resolved.4 And in Grenada, a referendum in November 2016

produced an overwhelming ‘no’ vote to ‘seven pieces of legislation that

would have reformed the Constitution the island received when it attained

political independence from Britain 42 years ago’, including proposals

to replace the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)

as the final court of appeal, the introduction of term limits for the prime

minister, fixed dates for elections, and the expansion of individual rights

and freedoms, including protections relating to gender equality and the

rights of the child.5 The electorate’s rejection of the proposed amendments

prompts critical questions about popular engagement with the reform