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A Holistic Approach to the Jamaican Political environment

Chapter 1: Introduction

Jamaica is in a sorry state of affairs. Three areas of significant

concern are corruption, poverty and crime. Jamaican politics is so corrupt

that this year’s Global Corruption Perception Index ranked Jamaica 83 rd out

of 177 countries (Johnson 2013). The index determines the level of

corruption on a scale of 0, meaning highly corrupt, to 100, meaning very

clean, in which Jamaica ranks 38 out of 100, meaning very corrupt(Johnson

2013). Furthermore Jamaica has had a terrible record on this Index for the

last 12 years, with an average of 35 out of 100(Johnson 2013). This ranking

has worsened, dropping from eighty third to eighty fifth out of one hundred

and seventy five in December 2014 (Johnson 2014). Poverty is bad as in

2014 the overall poverty rate grew to be 19.9 % of the population (Jackson,

2014). An example of how crime is a problem is that gangs were largely

responsible for committing the 13,000 murders that occurred from 2000-

2010 (Leslie 2010, 3). In more recent news the murder rate is steeply

increasing in Jamaica with a total 572 murders from January 1 to June 30

2015 (Spaulding 2015). As bad as these problems are they are but mere

symptoms of a more fundamental underlying problem. I will argue that

Jamaica’s development has been skewed by a monistic model of political

development and the solution is to replace it with a holistic pluralistic

political model.
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In order to understand this concept one must define a series of key

terms. This is because the way in which these terms will be defined will

mould the methodology that will be used to shape arguments of the essay.

Since this is a political philosophical analysis, it is important to define the

term political philosophy. I will start with the definition of philosophy. This

term is difficult to define due to the fact there are many different versions of

the definition of the word (Sullivan 1992, 2). In order to avoid getting

bogged down in controversy I will be using a basic, working definition based

on the most general possible definition. It is largely agreed that philosophy

is universalistic and rationalistic (Sullivan 1992, 2-3). To be universalistic is

the approach of framing the world in the smallest possible number of

principles (Sullivan 1992, 2-3). To be rationalistic is to explain the world

based on reason rather than supernatural wisdom (Sullivan 1992, 3). Thus

philosophy will be defined as the rationalistic and universalistic approach to

explaining the nature of the world for the purposes of this essay.

The next step is to define what it means to be within the political

realm for the purposes of this essay. The political sphere is that aspect of

society that is concerned with the common interests of the society (Wolin

2004, 11). This takes the form of the managing of institutions that serve the

common or public good like defense, economy and justice (Wolin 2004, 4).

Political institutions are the processes and procedures that have been

established as the norm with regard to the handling of public matters

(Wolin 2004, 7).

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The political realm is of course run by the political system of a given

society (Wolin 2004, 7). A political system is the framework of political

institutions that sum up the arrangement of power and authority in a given

society (Wolin 2004, 7). Authority is the right of a given government to rule

over its constituency (Wolff 1998,4). Power is the ability to compel a given

individual or group to do something that he or she may not want to do

(Christiano 2014, 4). In order for Authority to be fully understood one must

also have an understanding of what legitimacy is. Legitimacy is defined as

the basis upon which the state has the right to rule (Peter 2014,3). Thus

true authority comes from the combination of power and legitimacy.

The central theme of the political realm is the state (Munroe 2002,

37). This is significant as the subject of my analysis is the state of Jamaica.

The state is defined as the political system that has the supreme authority

to make binding decisions over and enforce compliance from the population

of a given geographical area (Munroe 2002, 37). The state is different from

the government in that the government is the part of the state that is

responsible for the day to day running of the state but the state also

includes other institutions like the police, military, tax code machinery and

civil service (Munroe 2002, 37). Thus governments change but not states

(Munroe 2002, 37).

The next term that needs to be defined is interests. The definition of

the word fall into two groups: subjective and objective (Bennditt 1975, 245).
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Subjective interests are dependent on the desires of the person and

objective ones are not (Bennditt 1975, 245). I will be siding with the

objective school. This is because the simple aspiration for a goal is not

sufficient to determine if a given activity is in the interests of a given group

as said group may choose a goal that runs counter to their true interests

(Benn 1959-1960, 126). An example of this is that a group of slaves may not

want freedom but it is still in their interests to be free as freedom is a

necessary component of human dignity (Benn 1959-1960, 129). Dignity is

the state of being worthy to respect.1 This would mean that human dignity

is defined as the state of respectability that that is associated with being

human. Thus the definition that I will be using is a variant of the objective

school that I have coined which is that a political interest is any societal

change that promotes the state of respectability that each individual is to

expect on the basis of his or her humanity.

With the definitions of all of these other terms out of the way a

definition of political philosophy can finally be stated. The goal of political

philosophers is the advancement of order (Wolin 2004, 9). Order is defined

as the state of security and peace that allows for the existence of civilized

life (Wolin 2004, 9). Political philosophy can therefore be defined as the

universalistic and rationalistic approach to the common changes that

promote human dignity of society in a way that advances and maintains a

state of peace and security that promotes civilized life.

1
The Oxford English Dictionary: 2nd edition, s.v “dignity”
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The problem of political philosophy is that the interests in a society

vary based on the person or group (Wolin 2004, 11). The result is the clash

of interests in any given society known as politics (Wolin 2004, 11). Wolin

defines politics as the term used by political philosophy to describe the

competition between the factions that represent different interests that is

conditioned by a context of change and scarcity in pursuit of an advantage

that will impact the society in a significant way (2004, 11). An example of

this might be between that the sudden onset of a famine in a given country

might result in a conflict between the schools and the hospital related

unions over who should get more food.

In this particular example the interests groups are the hospital and

school unions who are competing over the share of food in a context of

scarcity, the famine, in a context of change, the transition from having

plenty of food to being in a famine. It should be noted, based on the

definition of interests mentioned earlier, that the problem of politics is

exacerbated by the presence of subjective aspirations that are advanced by

groups that do not necessarily line up with their interests.

The only problem that I have with his definition of the term is that he

said that politics takes place in a context of scarcity and change rather than

that of scarcity or change as one does not need both for politics to occur.

Thus the definition of politics that I will be using is as the term used by

political philosophy to describe the competition between the factions that

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represent different interests that is conditioned by a context of change or

scarcity in pursuit of an advantage that will impact the society in a

significant way.

The solution to the problem of conflicting interests is to make policies

that will reconcile or harmonize said interests (Benn,1959-1960, 123). To

harmonize the conflicting interests of any two rival groups, in light of how

the term interests was defined, is not simply a matter of bluffing and

bargaining until the negotiation ends in a compromise (Benn,1959-1960,

132). True reconciliation comes from the mutual recognition of each group’s

justifiable claims rather than the desires of either party (Benn, 1959-1960,

132). There are many philosophical ways in which one can approach the

harmonization of conflicting interests in the manner mentioned earlier.

Ultimately however the goal of true reconciliation is to create an egalitarian

society. Egalitarianism is the belief in the principle that all people are equal and

consequently deserve equal rights and opportunities.2 The reason why

reconciliation is egalitarian in nature is that it seeks to take into consideration all

of the interests within society.

Since this essay is about the challenge Jamaica is struggling with in order to

harmonize its people’s interest, a little historical background with regard to its

colonial era is required. Jamaica, prior to independence, was an elitist society.

Elitism is the belief that society should be ruled by a small core of people who are

better than everyone else.3 The main variation of this elitism was racism. Racism is

2
The Oxford English Dictionary: 2nd edition, s.v “Egalitarian”
3
The Collins English Dictionary.3rd edition, s.v “Elitism”
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the belief that some races are inherently superior to others on the basis of

hereditary characteristics.4 The modern definition of race is the subjective

conception of the phenotypical characteristics that varies from one society

to the next rather than a genetic attribute (Alleyne 2002,3). This racism is the

basis of white power. Power is the ability to compel a given individual or

group to do something that he or she may not want to do (Christiano 2014,

4). White power is power that rules in favor of whites regardless of the

proportion of blacks to whites or if the land was originally white owned

(Rodney 2001, 17). White power, on a global scale, is made manifest in the

form of imperialism (Rodney 2001, 18). Imperialism is the exertion of

power by a dominant metropolitan country like the U.K over a dominated

peripheral state like Jamaica (Rodney 2001, 18).

Jamaica got its first taste of imperialism when Christopher Columbus

claimed the land for Spain in 1494 (Gritzner 2004, 30). The British captured

the island from Spain militarily in 1655 and Spain formerly handed it over

to Britain in 1670 (Gritzner 2004, 30-31). An important historical

manifestation of said imperialism in Jamaica is the fact that up until 1834 colonial

Jamaica had engaged in the enslavement of black people by white people (Matthei

& Matthei 2002, 673). Slavery was originally an economic activity which

triggered the development of racism as white people stopped working the fields

4
The Collins English Dictionary.3rd edition, s.v “Racism”
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and eventually formulated racist theories to justify this predicament (Rodney 2001,

25).

The practice of slavery was introduced by the Spanish when they found the

local Taino natives to be an inadequate workforce due to their dwindling numbers

(Gritzner 2004, 30). During slavery black people were viewed as being

property and brutalized as such (Thompson 2006, 22). These slaves were forced to

grow a variety of crops. A few examples of these crops are indigo, ginger, pimento

and cocoa (Sheridan 2007, 212). By the 18th century these slaves would go on to

make Jamaica the biggest producer of sugar in the British Empire by toiling on the

plantations (Sheridan 2007, 13). Colonial Jamaica continued to be racist after the

abolition of slavery (Rodney 2001, 26). After emancipation the British government

in 1895 replaced Jamaica’s constitutional government with direct colonial rule as

part of a wider effort during the 19th century to strip the majority black colonies of

self rule whilst at the same increasing the self rule of the majority white colonies

(Rodney 2001, 26-27).

Another significant consequence of colonialism that happened during Jamaica’s slavery

era is the integration of the island into the mercantilist economy (Sheridan, 2007, 41). This was

the system of international trade wherein the colony and mother country would engage in

exclusive trade, the colonies would produce the raw materials in exchange for manufactured

goods from the mother country and only a few citizens of the mother country would be granted

the privilege of engaging in trade, shipping and manufacturing (Baradat 1979, 70). This was

based on the monopolistic and exploitative mercantilist politico-economic policy of acquiring

and hording national wealth, in the form of gold and silver, for the purposes of enhancing

national power (Baradat 1979, 70).

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This policy in turn is based on the mercantilist economic theory that there is a fixed

amount of wealth in the world (Irwin, 1991, 1296). This theory motivated the European powers

to bitterly compete, often to the point of war, over the perceived limited gains in the world

(Irwin, 1991, 1297). Mercantilism is the economic wing of the State absolutist philosophy

(Rothbard, 2006, 213). State Absolutism is the belief that the secular state should have unlimited

power in secular matters, thus relegating the church to a strictly religious role (Rothbard, 2006,

180). The reason why mercantilism can be seen to be a manifestation of state absolutism is that

it is fundamentally geared towards enhancing the power of the state by meeting its fiscal needs at

the expense of its own citizens (Rothbard, 2006, 213-214).

The reason for why the legacy of colonialism is the root of the Jamaican struggle for

equality is that the elitism of colonialism continued to exist after independence. One particularly

serious problem was that the economy, due to its historic dependence on labor intensive export

agriculture, was consistently prone to high unemployment rates and rural poverty particularly

when export demand fell (Bullock, 2012). This economic orientation dates back to the

imposition of mercantilism. One way in which racism continues to manifest itself in the post-

colonial era is via the use of skin bleaching products to achieve a sense of beauty (Bolton, 2015).

This is a practice that dates back to the slavery era (Alleyne 2002, 205). The importance of

mentioning this habit is that it symbolizes the fact that the larger problem of racial self hatred,

created by white imperialism, has persisted after independence. This racist legacy has therefore

had a damaging effect on the Jamaican black community.

Jamaica upon becoming independent has sought to create an egalitarian

society. This independence came from Britain in 1962 (Munroe 2002 102).This is

seen in the fact that Jamaica’s national motto “Out of Many, One People” was
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meant to depict the Jamaican culture, people and by extension Jamaican

identity as the unique blend of the various foreign influences that have

arrived in the country in order to promote future integration of the nation’s

society ( Seaga 2009, 100). A few examples of progress along toward

egalitarianism is that, from 1962-2012, life expectancy has increased from

64 to 74 years, infant mortality has been reduced from 48 to 20 per 1000 as

well as considerable progress in terms of education (Henry-Lee 2012). In

light of such developments Jamaica has been ranked as a middle income

country by the Human Development Index (HDI) (Henry-Lee 2012).

There is little reason to celebrate however due to the sobering

aforementioned realities of crime, poverty and corruption. Furthermore

Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller, has disapproved of the

HDI rating as it cuts Jamaica off from the international financial aid it to pay

its mounting debts (Saunders 2015). It can be said then that Jamaica has

improved in terms of its ability reconcile its society’s interests but to an

unsatisfactory degree. Thus the problem of Jamaican is that of how to

determine the best way to reconcile the competing interests in the country

that will successfully create a prospering egalitarian society.

Finding the solution starts with seeing progress as being centered on

the concept of development. The root word of the term, develop, is defined

as being the growth towards a higher level of maturity, advancement or

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sophistication.5 Development is defined as the process of developing.6

Therefore the definition of development is the process of growth towards a

higher level of maturity, advancement or sophistication. The reason why

the solution hinges on the concept of development is that choosing the right

path to development will allow the country to become egalitarian. The crux

of the matter is in determining the approach that is conducive to Jamaica’s

development in philosophical or rather, more specifically speaking,

metaphysical terms.

The next step in this process is to define metaphysics. Defining

Metaphysics is problematic as the term is notoriously difficult to define

( Inwagen, 2013, 1). The definition of the word that will be used in this

context is that metaphysics is defined as the fundamental philosophical

structure in which the world is framed (Edward, 2012, 38). The

metaphysical approach to how to the concept of Jamaican development is

therefore the fundamental philosophical approach in which said

development is framed.

The two rival metaphysical approaches in question are monism and

pluralism. Monism is the attribution of a fundamental oneness on a given target

(Schaffer, 2014, 1). I will be defining the word pluralism in this context as

being the attribution of fundamental multiplicity or plurality unto a given

target. What this means in practical terms is that the monistic approach to

5
The Oxford English Dictionary: 2nd edition, s.v “Develope”
6
The Oxford English Dictionary: 2nd edition, s.v “Development”
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development emphasizes the growth of one aspect of society and the

pluralistic approach emphasizes the growth of multiple parts. The central

argument is that the pluralistic approach is superior because it can

accommodate the complex dynamics of a society whilst the monistic

alternative can’t. In other words the pluralistic model is superior because it

is holistic and the monistic approach is imbalanced with regard to the

advancement of the common interest of society. This thesis boils down to

the application of this argument to the Jamaican experience.

The way to prove this is through the use of a three step argument. The

first step is to show that the society is oriented in a monistic fashion, the

second is to show that said monism is a bad thing and the third is to show

that a pluralistic alternative is preferable to the status quo. This process in

a nutshell amounts to the comparison between the monistic and the

pluralistic models in terms of how each one benefits or undermines the

quality of life of the average citizen.

A good place to start applying this logic is with regard to colonialism.

The racist colonialism that that ruled over Jamaica was racially monistic as

it was designed to advance the welfare of the racial state in the interests of

the white race at the expense of all the others. This was a bad thing as this

crated an elitist, and therefore imbalanced society which inflicted misery on

the majority of its people. A good way to describe what happened to Jamaica

is underdevelopment. Underdevelopment is the lack of growth of the

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regions that were colonized relative to the developed nations as a result of

the exploitation of colonialism (Rodney, Babu and Harding 1981 13-14) This

is why Jamaica formally repudiated this philosophy upon independence in

1962 in favor of creating society that views the interests of all its

demographics as legitimate.

In other words Jamaica had officially shifted to a racially pluralistic

model of development. This shift is quantitative in the sense that the

number of interests that it seeks to satisfy has increased. I would argue that

whilst this has yielded positive results, the reason why said results are not

positive enough is that the state has yet to advance pluralism in a more

qualitative sense thus perpetuating the grip of the racial contract. What I

mean by this is that acknowledging the legitimacy of the interests of others

is only the first step which then needs to be followed by the second, the

satisfying of these interests in a comprehensive fashion.

In order to demonstrate this point I will examine the evolution of the

accepted definition of national development. The original definition was that

of a process of growth in strictly economic terms (Thomas-Slayter 2003,

12). This approach to development can be said to be capitalistic in nature.

Capitalism is the mode of production wherein all economic subjects are

formally free of personal bonds like slavery or vassalage, wage labor is used

to extract surplus value and the surplus value is then invested into the

acquisition of capital (Screpanti 2001, 29). The foundational institution of

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capitalism is the employment contract, an agreement with the fundamental

goal of generation compliance from the worker to the employer (Screpanti

2001, 29).

This is based on the capitalistic economic theory that the wealth of a

nation is not defined by the amount of gold or silver it accrues but rather

the value of goods that it sells (Baradat 1979, 71). This means that the

wealth in the world is not fixed but rather that all nations can grow richer

together through trade rather than exploitation (Skousen 2007, 10). The

philosophical basis of capitalism is individualism: the belief that the

individual is the foundational unit of society (Screpanti 2001, 259).This

individualism translates into individual competition, the making of political

and economic decisions by individuals in contestation with each other

(Screpanti 2001, 260). This competition translates into the invisible hand,

the source of harmony in capitalism, a metaphor for the ability of the

enlightened, voluntary, unguided, self interest of the individuals in society

to act as a stability and prosperity advancing force in society (Skousen

2007, 19).

Capitalism, in its original form, is the economic wing of classical

liberalism (Baradat 1979,71). Liberalism is the political philosophy that the

rights of the individual exist outside of and prior to the state and thus the

role of the state is to defend said rights from infringement (Mayhew 2002,

172). Classical Liberalism is the version of liberalism that states that the

property rights of individuals are paramount to individual well being and

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the role of the state is limited to the protecting these rights (Holocombe and

Castillo 2013, 6). In any case this is a monistic approach to development as

economic growth is only one aspect of society.

This approach to development is measured either in terms of the

sustained growth of the gross national income that exceeds population

growth or in terms of the decline in the agricultural share of the economy in

favor of manufacturing and services (Thomas-Slayter 2003, 12).Gross

Domestic Product (GDP) growth is currently the most popular indicator of a

given country’s overall progress (Kubisweski et al 2013, 57). The GDP is the

total value of all of the final goods produced by all of a given country’s

citizens in a given year and so is a measure of a country’s total economic

output (Dasgupta, 2007 15). The reason for why I say that the role of the

GDP indicator is a show of individualism is that the world has come to

recognize economic growth as key developmental indicator.

This definition over time however has proven to be inadequate as it

has been shown to be too narrow in its assessment (Thomas-Slayter 2003,

12). This is due to the fact that a country can successfully grow

economically and still fail to meet the needs of the majority of its people,

thus resulting in them suffering from poverty, inequality and unemployment

(Thomas-Slayter 2003, 12). This is seen in the backlash that has arisen

against the use of GDP as a measurement of welfare on the basis of being

an inadequate standard (Kubiszewski et al, 2013, 57). Firstly GDP was

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never intended to be a measure of welfare but rather marketed economic

activity (Kubiszewski et al, 2013, 57). Secondly GDP does not discern

between welfare causing and welfare enhancing activity but rather views all

expenses as positive (Kubiszewski et al, 2013, 57). Thirdly GDP does not

take welfare enhancing activities that don’t involve a monetary transaction

(Kubiszewski et al, 2013, 57). The final reason is that GDP doesn’t take

income distribution, a critical factor to welfare, into account (Kubiszewski

et al, 2013, 57). Basically the weakness of the monistic emphasis of

development is that it will result in the rise of a wealthy elite that will

benefit at the expense of the poor.

This is exactly what happed in Jamaica. Jamaica had attempted to

develop in a liberal manner during the late colonial to early independence

era. Jamaica had employed the growth strategy of the economist W. Arthur

Lewis (Stephens and Stephens 1986, 21-22). This was an export oriented

model in which the state would expedite industrialization through the

granting of investment incentives for foreign capital, a model known as the

industrialization by invitation model (Stephens and Stephens 1986, 21-22).

This resulted in the Jamaican state playing the limited role of providing

security, infrastructure and investment incentives during the 1950s-1960s

(Stephens and Stephens 1986, 22). Thanks to following Lewis’s model

Jamaica’s GDP grew by a spectacular 7% per annum on average and the

agricultural share of the economy declined significantly in favor of

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manufacturing during the 1950s and 1960s (Stephens and Stephens 1986,

22).

From 1960-1972 however the unemployment rate had sharply

increased which, in conjunction with the increase the country’s wealth,

exacerbated the already unequal income distribution (Stephens and

Stephens 1986, 23-24). Furthermore the Jamaican economy, by the late

1960s, was severely skewed by the influence of foreign business interests

(Stephens and Stephens 1986, 30). An example of this is that said interests

had dominated all of the pillars of the Jamaican economy (Stephens and

Stephens 1986, 30). This is significant as this means that Jamaica’s

economically oriented approach to achieving egalitarianism led to the

furthering of the country’s underdevelopment by keeping it ensared in the

racial contract.

This realization concerning the traditional economic model of

development proves, from a metaphysical point of view, the inevitable

destructive imbalance that a monistic perspective imposes on development.

Thus there arose a need to find a broader definition of development

(Thomas-Slayter 2003, 12). Two examples of people who posited their

theoretical alternative to the original definition of definition of national

development are Dennis Goulet and Amartya Sen. Goulet is an economist

and a philosopher (Thomas-Slayter 2003, 12). Amartya Sen is a 1998 Nobel

Prize winner in economics (Thomas-Slayter 2003, 13).

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Goulet’s theory was that development is composed of three central

virtues: life sustenance, self esteem and freedom (Thomas-Slayter 2003,

12). Amaryta Sen argues that the concept of development is primarily about

expanding freedoms rather than mere economic growth (Thomas-Slayter

2003, 13). By expanding freedoms he means that development is about the

removal of what he refers to as unfreedoms: tyranny, poverty, repression,

lack of economic opportunities and the neglect of public facilities (Thomas-

Slayter 2003, 13). Consequently economic growth, from his perspective is

simply a means to an end rather than an end in itself like the traditional

definition (Thomas-Slayter 2003, 13).

I think the best way to sum up both of their theories on development

is to refer to the way in which Thomas-Slayter expanded on Goulet’s idea of

development. She defined development as the process of broadly

empowering the masses to influence their futures on both an individual and

group level ( 2003, 13). In order to do this, reforms would not only need to

be put in place to boost economic productivity but also to enhance the

political and social institutions alongside the addressing of social issues

(Thomas-Slayter 2003, 13). Both of these theories can therefore be seen as

pluralistic in that they call for the advancement of multiple sectors of the

society: political, economic and social, for the sake of achieving a rounded

degree of development rather than the improvement on any one aspect for

its own sake.

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Both the monistic and pluralistic models are grounded in and a

reflection of a corresponding version of personal development. What I mean

by this is that the monistic version of national development is rooted in a

monistic version of personal development and the pluralistic version thereof

is derived from a pluralistic version of personal development. This is due to

the fact that each of the aforementioned sectors of society, the economic,

political and social, all represent a different aspect of each individual within

the society. The economic sector represents the individual’s need for

material satisfaction, the social sector represents the individual’s need for

peace and security and the political sector represents each individual’s

need for self determination. This means that the path to implementing a

pluralistic approach to national development is via the advancement of

personal development.

The rationale for choosing the political sectors for reform is centered

on the concept of effective self determination. Self determination is the

ability to make decisions without outside influence, either at the level of the

individual to control his or her own life or a country to choose its form of

government.7 Effective self sufficiency is the ability to consistently make

good decisions, at either the individual or nation level, without the aid of an

outside influence. All that is needed for self determination at the national

level for a given country is for it to be politically independent. Mere

7
Collins Essential English Dictionary:3rd ed, s.v “self-determination”
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independence is not a sufficient condition for effective self determination as

there are a myriad of failed and failing independent nations.

In order for there to be effectively self sufficiency a given nation self

determination at the individual level needs to be promoted as well. A key

way in which this is done is via the use a political system that can receive

and act to advance the will of the masses in a timely fashion. Thus political

independence and a good political environment are key components to a

larger system of effective self determination. This is not to say that there

aren’t other factors that contribute to effective self determination like

education, infrastructure and economics. The reason I am focusing on the

political wing of effective self determination is that Jamaican politics has

changed so little since independence, as opposed to other factors like

education and economics, that it requires special attention.

My arguments for reform concern the need to make changes to the

Westminster system in Jamaica. The Westminster system is the democratic

model that Jamaica is using (Sutton 2013, 66). Democracy is defined as the

political system wherein the masses rule either directly or via the election

of of representatives (Umpenhour 2005,53). The Westminster system can be

minimally defined as a representative government in which the executive

and legislative branches of the government are unified in the hands of the

ruling party (Nijink 2001, 53). Jamaica accepted this model from the British

when it became an independent (Munroe 2002,102).

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The problem is that the political system in Jamaica is geared towards

the monistic drive for personal gain, thus leading to an imbalanced elitist

society. Based on everything that was brought up so far the three step logic

that will be used to justify these reforms are that the political system is

monistic in the sense that it emphasizes the pursuit of personal, said

monism is problematic and therefore holistic reforms need to be

implemented in order to fix the system. These reforms are senate reform,

impeachment, separation of powers, proportional representation and term

limits. This will bring improvements by making the government more

accountable, increasing the choices within jamaican democracy and thus

increasing voter participation.