GT-63A Examination Questions

Caribbean Political Systems 1

Answer three questions. Select at least one question from Section A.

Section A

(1) Consider the research and theoretical traditions in Caribbean Social Science. What do scholars like Stone, M.G. Smith and Sankatsing say about its evolution and its limitations? Say also what guidelines have been suggested for future research, for example by Greene, and whether these appear to be adequate.

(2) The New World Group insisted on the need for Caribbean scholarship. What did it envisage and how did Lloyd Best conceive of the role of the Caribbean intellectual in the process. How did he say that intellectual should cope with the research and theoretical challenges he/she would face?

(3) Patrick Emmanuel reviewed the studies of the first generation of Caribbean (UWI) academics and found that there was little theorizing among them about the Caribbean State. What kinds of analyses did these scholars engage in; what theoretical model did Emmanuel recommend; and what criticisms might one make of his model?

Section B

(4) The classic description of the Westminster Model clearly does not tell us all, or even the most meaningful things about Caribbean political systems. What for instance, have Ghany, Stone, and Judge/Marinnetto to say about how Caribbean political systems should or could be understood.

(5) The idea of consensus seems common to scholars representing a new School of Caribbean political scholarship with Munroe emphasizing democracy and Ryan emphasizing governance. Consider their ideas particularly in relation to the more plural-like Caribbean societies (sometimes referred to as ‘ethnic democracies’).

(6) Can one identify a Trans-Caribbean School of democracy and governance among Caribbean regionalists? What evidence exists, if any, from the collection of essays in Hall and Benn’s Caribbean Imperatives: Regional Governance and Integrated Development (2005)?

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