“If the purpose of politics is the distribution of favours one had better make sure that there are enough favours to go around or those who are not favour will rise up and smite those who are.” Micheal Manley
There is no joy in being in opposition, you know when you are in opposition you control nothing. If one is outside the “power loop”, one is ineffective and impotent despite the fact that one maybe a duly elected representative of the people.
Historically the introductyion of a democratic political system was due to the failure of the post emancipation , scoio economic situation. Which resulted in the export of the Westminsiter model and fostered the emergence of Caribbean political leadership who favoured progressive upliftment in socioeconomic conditions where it became deeply engrained in the political system. This is where a concsiouness developed based upon sustaining stability and legitimacy of the system . such a system greatly depends on the existence of the enjoyment of political freedoms, as well as the ablity of the government to provide essential needs. In Winner Takes All Ryan speakes of the “exportation” of this Westminister sytem and challleges the theory that political sytesm Anglophone Caribbean has adopted is a model of the British Westminster. Ryan questions this and call such proclaims as myth of the Westminster model of governance.. To further understand ryans criticism one would have to fully comprehend the Westminster model. One may define the Westminster Model as the Westminster system is a democratic system of government that takes after that of the United Kingdom. It is in use in a number of commonwealth nations. They include: the Anglophone Caribbean;Canada; Singapore and India among others...
... middle of paper ...
...bbean territories that odopt the model has bicarmel system unique to these Caribbean countries “ it is based on nomination through patronage with no security of tenure.” These small territories has very few representative in Parilimiament due to amount and thus there is a lack of backbenchers. This situation creates a competive nature in the political sytem , which further separate it from being a model of the British Westminster model. This competiviness in the political arean leads to several problems of undermining democracy as well as underdevelopement for several of these territories.
From the beginning of the independce period after 1962 for englisgh speaking craibbean territories , the intense and competeive nature of the political system that exsist has constributed to a lack of development in the countries and also undermines citiuzens democratic rights.
The game of hardball is all about keeping up a good reputation to your peers and to the public. A successful politician can build up alliances. It is definitely impossible for someone to make their way to the top without any help. Instead of getting help, a person could make a mistake by “limit[ing] their horizons to missions they can accomplish alone” (15). These people ultimately lose the game. Matthews describes one way to forge an alliance in the maxim “It’s better to receive than give”. While confidence is a good thing, too much pride can end in disaster. A way to avoid looking too confident is asking for help. During the General Elections of 1978, Jimmy Carter asked for the help of those who had lost on election night. This is wise because they looked for work and wanted to be needed. Votes and alliances can be made simply because of a feeling of inclusion in the process. A politician asking for help is “offering a chance to join in the political action, to be part of his success”...
In November 1974, the Working Peoples Alliance(WPA), a political organization, was formally launched in Guyana. Several independent Guyanese organizations including WPVP(Working Peoples Vanguard Party), IPRA( Indian Political Revolutionary Associates), RATOON, the ASCRIA( African Society for Cultural Relations with Independent Africa) , and independent people constituted the ‘alliance’. The founding statement, representing of the new politics, cited the stand against race based election politics, violent political repression, the worsening economic conditions of the masses, cancerous corruption and denial of academic and press freedom, as factors in its formation. The coalition that comprised WPA also addressed regional and international concerns. It pledged to strengthen the unity of the Caribbean masses and identified itself with the suffering masses everywhere with the maxim that it stood for the “destruction of imperialism and its neocolonial systems and for the revolutionary unity of all subject and liberated peoples.” More importantly, the critical representation of the “new politics” embodied in the alliance was its multiracial appearance and programmatic declaration of promoting racial unity. This was not incidental. The disparate organizations that constituted the alliance and the new politics it embraced all emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s and were emblematic of the convulsions and shifts in the political culture embodied in the ‘long sixties’
As a representative of the Algo ethnic group, I want to say that our people would like the new state to introduce a parliamentary system of governence. Parliamentarism is a system of government in which the head of government is elected by and accountable to a parliament or legislature. One could rightfully ask: What is our reasoning for desiring this? We think it is justified because in presidential systems the populace at large votes for a chief executive, who is the President, in a nation-wide election. This is revenant as the Algo comprises the minority of the population of the Republic of Jarth, which consists of only 1.1 million representatives in the whole state, compared to that of 2.9 million Randies, 3.8 million Dorfas and 2.2 million Takas living in the Republic of Jarth. One can reasonably assume that the outcome will most likely be that the cumulation of the majority’s vote will hinder the representation (in numbers) of the members of the minority in office. Subsequently, the Algo will have to live under the control of a leader from another ethnic group again, which the Algo members tremble at the thought of because we are proud of their ethnicity and do not wished to be shamed for it. On the other hand, in parliamentarism, the first step is an election of members of parliament, which are the political parties. This is imperative since it will allow the Algo to be able to choose the party we really share interests with....
...first demonstrates the absence of knowledge by pointing out the absence of schools, hospitals, and monuments; the Antiguans’ ignorance to the importance of using unleaded gasoline; and the inaccessibility of education when the most reputable school is one of Hotel Training. Consequently, as Kincaid illustrates by pointing out that Antiguans do not have control of their own circumstances—not even the stamps they circulate—an absence of education and knowledge hinders realization of power. The relationship between knowledge and power is further solidified as Kincaid discloses that a lack of their own language hinders communication, and no control over access to education further inhibits acquisition of power. These examples Kincaid presents in A Small Place provide solid evidence that knowledge and access to it are necessary antecedents to the achievement of power.
... reflect well on the government and could even lead to a future majority government. Lastly, in order to maintain confidence of the House the government makes pacts with other parties in exchange for their confidence for a certain amount of time. This ensures a stable government for a certain amount of time. All in all, a minority government benefits the government and the public.
difficult for the views and opinions of the people to be heard. For these reasons democracy is the
O’ Tuathail,G., Dalby, S and Routledge, P (eds) (2006) The Geopolitics Reader (2nd Edition), Routledge, London.
take it anymore. But when there is a long train of abuses and attacks it is the people's right, it is their duty, to get rid of the government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. The same as these colonies have patiently suffered; the same that now forces them to change their old systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and attacks, all contributing to the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to an honest world.
Discussions of which constitutional form of government best serves the growing number of democratic nation’s are being debated around the world. In the essay “The Perils of Presidentialism”, political scientist, Juan Linz compares the parliamentary with presidential systems as they govern democracies. As the title of Linz’s essay implies, he sees Presidentialism as potentially dangerous and sites fixed terms, the zero-sum game and legitimacy issues to support his theory. According to Linz, the parliamentary system is the superior form of democratic government because Prime Minister cannot appeal to the people without going through the Parliament creating a more cohesive form of government. By contrast, a President is elected directly by the
Now days democracy has been establish in every Latin America country except Cuba, which is still a socialist state. It seemed that every other alternative form of government such as Marxism or Leninism has failed and been replaced by democracy. Furthermore it looks like people in Latin American really enjoy democracy and its’ benefits, as they also consider it to be the best form of government. After the failure of authoritarian leaders and the military intervene their lives, Latin American citizens wanted to change their system into a more fair and honest system, democracy. Democracy is usually defined as a system of honesty, equality, freedom of rights, though for Latin America countries it means gains, welfare and patronage. Latin American did not work the democratic system properly as it should be and different obstacles keep the system away from being consolidated. Democracy in Latin America still face serious problems in matters as grinding poverty, huge social gaps, corruption, drug dealing, inefficient governments and most importantly governments who promote and use military. The real question is why democracy actually failed even though democracy is what people want. Paraguay is a case of failure in transition democracy because of the corruption and other things that will be argued in this essay. Paraguay and Ecuador are considered to be the only countries that democratization did not achieve consolidation, in differ from Chilli and Central American.
Divisive national elections in 1957, 1961, 1964, and 1968in Guyana assisted in shaping the boundaries of political and social life. Collectively, these elections served to sustain the ethnic divide amidst an increasingly weary population. By 1968, the ruling party in government, the PNC (Peoples National Congress) began to ‘make moves’ in the state and society designed to consolidate its position.
In Africa, the interests of various individuals and groups have transformed the possession of power into nightmarish dimensions due to the flaws in the political structures of the societies. Although some of these degenerative weaknesses have been explained by historical experiences, there still remains the fact that the progressive development of any society depends on a conscious pruning of flawsin the organizational structure of the society by those with the power to provide guidance and direction. Moreover, this burden of leadership could elicit either patriotic parasitic tendencies in the utilization and exercise of power. (Ehling 23-25)
The formation of an electoral coalition consisting of a national majority allows British elections to be a rapid process. For instance, the elected representatives are in control of the institutional mechanism of exercising authority on matters of national public policy. This gives one party a clear majority of the seats in the lower and more powerful House of the legislature and the legitimate right to control the executive as well as legislative organs of government. (Way
Renowned for its “of the people” foundation, democracy has become the regime type to which we compare all other regime types- a gold standard of government structure. Because of this ideal, it is of comparative interest that we understand how to classify regimes as either democratic or dictatorial. The Polity IV Measure is a standard for democracy that scores a country (from -10 to +10) on how democratic or dictatorial their election processes and governmental procedures are. Post-independence Zimbabwe is a country that classifies itself as a parliamentary democracy, however due to a history of election scandals and Zimbabwe African National Union’s (ZANU, the current ruling party) maintenance of power for over thirty years, Polity IV granted them a “mixed regime type” score of -4. (Clark, Golder, and Golder 160) It is the purpose of this paper to argue that Zimbabwe does not have a mixed regime, but rather that it employs an authoritarian regime type. After outlining the controversial events resulting from the 2000 general election and surrounding the 2002 presidential election, I...
Modernization theory is an unworkable guide for facilitating Caribbean growth because of the many weaknesses, which have been highlighted. The modernization theory although is without a doubt one of he most influential theory, is in fact an unworkable guide to Caribbean development as it simply describes the development process without showing how it might be achieved. The theory is in fact a unilinear, ethnocentric theory and it is with all it's shortcomings which one can conclude that it provides an unworkable guide to Caribbean development.