Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1992

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Political Science

Major Professor

Vernon R. Iredell

Committee Members

Robert A. Gorman, Donald Clelland, Yang Zong

Abstract

The importance of economic systems to the developmental process in emerging nations has been crucial in diachronically formulating appropriate endogenous and exogenous policies by these nations to alleviate the subsistent existence of their populace. This dissertation, using a case study approach, is concerned with the dynamics of the relationship between economic systems and development in the Anglophone Caribbean. Some nations in this region sought through a radical reordering of their economic systems, alternative measures to achieve development. Jamaica, Grenada, and Guyana chose "pseudo-socialism" in place of "colonial-mercantilism" to alleviate poverty. The research examines the experiences of each of these nations regarding improvements in the general well-being of their citizens before, during, and after the adoption of "pseudo-socialism." Development in this sense is taken to mean socio-economic and political advances beyond a subsistent standard. The major goal of such radicalism was the building of a new Caribbean, with positive economic growth, low unemployment and social amenities geared to meeting the needs of a rapidly expanding population. In 1990, as the evidence gathered in this research indicates, "pseudo-socialism" and variations of "colonial-mercantilism" failed to improve the welfare of West Indians. At the same time, though, other Third World schemes, such as the East Asian nations, were successful in meeting the criterion of development well above the norms of Caribbean nations. The research argues that Caribbean nations may well succeed in their developmental efforts by adopting, as the East Asian states did, a "deeper" policy of an export-led economy, followed by intensive foreign investments. The research concludes that amorphous internal dilemmas, such as fiscal policies and mismanaged macro-economic policies concomitant with the external problem of the size of these nations' economies account for the dynamics of underdevelopment. To alleviate these dilemmas, the research advocates a deepening and widening of the common market through economic integration and cooperation, enhanced by policies of collective self-reliance and controlled dependence. The end result would be the elimination of subsistent poverty.

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