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Assessing the Boundaries of Participatory Democracy Within an Emancipatory Political Framework: the Case of Parish Development Committees in Jamaica

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Assessing the Boundaries of Participatory Democracy Within an Emancipatory Political Framework: the Case of Parish Development Committees in Jamaica Assessing the Boundaries of Participatory Democracy within an Emancipatory Political Framework: The Case of Parish Development Committees in Jamaica Marc Anthony Thomas Dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical and Cultural Thought Craig L. Brians, Chair Max O. Stephenson Jr., Co-Chair Karen M. Hult Joyce Rothschild Laura Zanotti May 5, 2015 Blacksburg, Virginia Keywords: Jamaica, emancipatory politics, Parish Development Committees, participatory democracy Copyright @ 2015 Marc Anthony Thomas Assessing the Boundaries of Participatory Democracy within an Emancipatory Political Framework: The Case of Parish Development Committees in Jamaica Marc Anthony Thomas ABSTRACT This dissertation empirically expands the existing knowledge on participatory democracy through a study of Jamaica’s Parish Development Committees (PDCs). These groups offer an avenue for Jamaicans to inform government policy, and this analysis explored the extent to which supportive institutional, infrastructural and superstructural (referring to the society’s culture and power configurations) conditions for robust implementation of this democratization initiative existed. This inquiry involved observing more than one hundred hours of PDC activities at locations across Jamaica and conducting sixty key informant and four focus group interviews with relevant stakeholders. The analysis was bolstered by an appreciation of emancipatory politics employed by the country’s general population since slavery not only to survive oppression, but also to influence the nation’s political agenda. Riots during slavery and in the present day, for example, have offered citizens an avenue towards self-determination. This study found that the emergence, survival and thriving of PDCs in Jamaica is determined largely by the extent to which emancipatory political tactics are successfully applied by PDC stakeholders to combat a number of continuing challenges in these committee’s environments. The democratization initiative symbolized by the PDCs promotes inclusiveness yet is led predominantly by older, educated middle class individuals with talents and capacities garnered from several years of experience in various fields. The dissertation argues that the opportunity cost of a more inclusive order explains this fact, in that Jamaica’s finite resources mean there is limited space for a learning curve and the cash strapped committees have only been able to survive when their members could help to defray the cost of their operations. The dissertation explores other central challenges confronting the PDCs and the strategies these participative organizations have employed to address each. Primarily, this analysis provides a micro-scale view of the interaction of the factors that have shaped the power and possibility of Jamaica’s democratization initiative. Dedication To my family. iii Acknowledgements I would like to especially thank former Chair, Craig Brians for his immense support and guidance. This extended beyond this project to include my teaching, research and transition to life in a foreign country and continued until his passing. I am also particularly grateful to Max Stephenson Jr. for guiding this project to completion. I also want to acknowledge the guidance and support received from the other members of my advisory committee. I am a better scholar because of their feedback and suggestions. I remain humbled and thankful to all the PDC members and stakeholders across Jamaica who took the time to meet and share their insights with me. Finally, a heartfelt thank you to my family, friends and well- wishers who assisted in various ways to ensure the completion of this project. iv Table of Contents Chapter One Planting the Seeds of Jamaica’s Democracy 1 Chapter Two The Space for and the Characteristics of Participatory Democracy 14 Chapter Three Research Design and Methods 49 Chapter Four The People and Paradigm of the PDC Process 85 Chapter Five Rowing Against the Tide of Assumptions: Testing the Limits of Survival and Creativity 147 Chapter Six The Future of the Selected Parish Development Committees and the Link with Past Experiences 201 References 231 Appendix A – Consent Form 244 Appendix B – Interview Prompts 246 Appendix C – Organization Chart 247 v Tables 1.0 Observed Meetings 71 1.1 Interview Categories, Numbers and Method 73 1.2 Codes and Titles of Interviewees 74 vi CHAPTER ONE PLANTING THE SEEDS OF JAMAICA’S DEMOCRACY Parish Development Committees Jamaica’s political system, an outgrowth of the country’s colonial heritage, has traditionally provided few opportunities for the general population to participate in the nation’s governance. The creation of Parish Development Committees (throughout this study I refer to the Parish Development Committees as PDCs, parish committees, development committees, committees and the experiment) and other organizations (see appendix C) aimed at eliciting citizen engagement in local governance in the Caribbean nation marked a departure from that history. As a government report introducing this new participatory structure explained: Parish Development Committees (PDCs), Development Area Committees (DACs) and Community Development Committees (CDCs) represent new institutional forms that have emerged in Jamaica’s quest to create a new paradigm of participatory local governance, in which communities/civil society are made full partners in the quest for good governance and balanced/sustainable local development. They are key elements of the institutional framework for a new model of participatory governance that will vastly expand democratic practice in the society and help to renew/revitalize the political system–and create goodwill/commitment toward this system, by enabling the active participation of citizens in the policy/decision- making processes. It is also critical in empowering communities to have a greater say in managing their own affairs and determining their own destiny; in facilitating citizens to play a more active role in governance at the local level; and in unleashing the vast store of energy, talents, innovativeness and leadership that lie dormant in large sections of the population, but which are stifled by high levels of centralization and exclusion which limit their ability to contribute to local and national development.1 Schoburgh has nicely summarized the aims of this governance initiative, “[L]ocal government reform policy in Jamaica thus aimed to reorient the focus of local authorities from mere providers of local services to agents of social transformation.”2 The Department of Local Government report that introduced PDCs defined them as, … An inclusive, democratic, independent, non-political and voluntary organization which brings together all elements of civil society, governmental, quasi and non-governmental 1 Keith Miller, “Parish Development Committees and the Emerging New Institutional Framework for Participatory Local Governance in Jamaica.” Office of the Prime Minister Department of Local Government. April 2008, 2. 2 Eris D. Schoburgh, “Local Government Reform in Jamaica and Trinidad: A Policy Dilemma,” Public Administration and Development 27, no. 2 (May 1, 2007): 163, doi:10.1002/pad.434. 1 agencies and organizations in a parish or other local government jurisdiction. It is established for the primary purpose of facilitating local self-management and development processes within the parish, and promoting and facilitating the concepts, principles and practices of good governance and balanced and sustainable development within the local jurisdiction. It seeks to accomplish these goals by working through and in partnership with its corresponding Local Authority, and by promoting partnership, collaboration, coordination, cooperation and networking among all the diverse sectors, interest groups and stakeholders in the parish, and also by encouraging the adoption of positive values and attitudes, social harmony and stability, and respect for the parish’s culture, heritage and unique character.3 As initially envisioned by the Office of the Prime Minister, PDCs were expected to “reverse adversarialism and tribalism, which are currently dominant characteristics of [Jamaica’s] social and political relationships.”4 Caribbean scholars Munroe and Buddan have also argued for more direct forms of participation in Jamaica, which they have suggested could serve as a mechanism for closing what they perceive to be the nation’s democratic deficit.5 The specific cause of this difficulty for Munroe particularly lies in the character of liberal democracy. As he has observed, “indirect representative democracy is concerned almost exclusively with institutional and procedural issues and mainly political inputs, participatory democracy is as much concerned with outcomes and substantive questions relating to the quality of social and economic life.”6 In his view, a more participatory form of local governance represented a necessary antidote to the existing situation, … [T]he choice we face, particularly in the Anglophone Caribbean is not between retaining liberal democracy in its existing form or passing to some type of authoritarianism; it is between renewing and qualitatively transforming liberal democracy in a participatory direction on the one hand or observing its decay into one or another degree of disintegration and anarchy.7 With its 2008 Local
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