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INFLUENCE OF FOREIGN POLITICS ON THE CARIBBEAN-

Westminster System, rule of law, electoral process, political life, migratory labour,

sports, and religion

THE WESTMINSTER SYSTEM

The Westminster system is a democratic parliamentary system of government modeled

after that of the United Kingdom system, as used in the Palace of Westminster (see

 picture above), the location of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The system is a

series of procedures for operating a legislature. It is also used, or was once used, in most

Commonwealth and ex-Commonwealth nations, beginning with the Canadian  provinces 

in the mid-19th century. It is also used in former colonies of Britain in the West Indiese.g. Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados….Important features of the Westminster 

system include:

• A head of state who is the nominal or theoretical source of executive power, holds

numerous reserve powers, but in practice is a ceremonial figurehead. Such

examples include the British Sovereign or the President of India. A de facto 

executive branch usually made up of members of the legislature with the senior 

members of the executive in a Cabinet;

• Such members execute executive authority on behalf of the nominal or theoretical

executive authority. The presence of opposition parties;

• An elected legislature, or a system in which one of two houses is elected and the

other appointed; The ability of the lower house of parliament to, by default,

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dismiss a government by "withholding (or blocking) Supply" (rejecting a budget),

 passing a no-confidence motion, or defeating a confidence motion. The

Westminster system enables a government to be defeated, or forced into a general

election, independently of a new government being chosen.

• The ability for a parliament to be dissolved and elections called at any time.

Politics of Trinidad and Tobago takes place in a framework of a unitary state, with a

 parliamentary democracy modelled on that of the UK , from which it gained

independence in 1962. Under the 1976 republican Constitution, the British monarch was

replaced as head of state by a President chosen by an electoral college composed of the

members of the bicameral Parliament, consisting of the Senate and the House of 

Representatives.

The country has remained a member of the Commonwealth, and has retained the Judicial

Committee of the Privy Council in London as its highest court of appeal.

The general direction and control of the government rests with the Cabinet, led by a

Prime Minister . The Prime Minister and Cabinet are answerable (at least in theory) to the

House of Representatives. The 36 members of the House are elected to terms of at least 5

years. Elections may be called earlier by the president at the request of the prime minister  

or after a vote of no confidence in the House of Representatives. In 1976, the voting age

was reduced from 21 to 18. The Senate's 31 members are appointed by the President: 16

on the advice of the prime minister, six on the advice of the leader of the opposition, and

nine independents selected by the President from among outstanding members of the

community. Local government is through nine Regional Corporations and five

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municipalities. In 2005 Parliament approved a proposal by the independent Elections and 

Boundaries Commission to increase the number of seats in the House of Representatives

from 36 to 41.

The President is elected by an electoral college, which consists of the members of the

Senate and House of Representatives, for a five-year term. The Prime Minister is

appointed by the President from among the members of Parliament; following legislative

elections, the person with the most support among the elected members of the House of 

Representatives is usually appointed Prime Minister. The cabinet appointed from among

the Members of Parliament which constitutes elected Members of the House of 

Representatives and appointed Members of the Senate

Politics of Jamaica takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative

democratic monarchy. The 1962 Constitution established a parliamentary system based

on the United Kingdom model. As chief of state, Queen Elizabeth II appoints a governor 

general, on the advice of the prime minister, as her representative in Jamaica. The

governor general's role is largely ceremonial. Executive power is vested in the cabinet,

led by the Prime Minister . Jamaica is an independent country and Commonwealth Realm. 

It is a parliamentary democracy whose political and legal traditions closely follow those

of the United Kingdom. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative

 power is vested in both the government and parliament. Jamaica's current Constitution 

was drafted in 1962 by a bipartisan joint committee of the Jamaican legislature. It came

into force with the Jamaica Independence Act, 1962 of the United Kingdom Parliament,

which gave Jamaica political independence. Constitutional safeguards include freedom of 

speech, press, worship, movement, and association. The Judiciary is independent of the

executive and the legislature. Jurisprudence is based on English common law.

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BOX:1 An Analysis of the Westminster System in the Caribbean

Diana Mahabir-Wyatt ( former Independent Senator of Trinidad & Tobago)

While I appreciate the stability the system has given us in the past, I

do not think

the Westminster system , even in the many variants in which it

appears in the

Caribbean, is still appropriate for small Caribbean states at this

 juncture in history, for a

number of reasons. The first and most obvious is size. Our countries

are too small to

provide large enough parliaments to make the system work. There are

no backbenchers

to provide creative disagreement in parties, there are not enough

parliamentarians to

make the Parliamentary committee system workable, and the size of 

the potential

parliamentary representative pool it leads us to chose from is

inadequate, and does not

include the intellectual and skills resources that we need.

What we end up with under the present system is an inefficient

parliament, simply

because by and large whatever one party proposes, the other party

opposes. If the

proposer is the majority party, the measure goes through. If it is not, itdoesn’t. The

major motivating factor is not what is in the best interest of the

country, but what is in

the party interest. We have an elected dictatorship.

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As in the UK, the members are told how to vote in the party caucus

that takes place

before Parliament meets, and the only freedom they have is how to

say what they are

told to argue. In the Senate in T&T, they don’t even get that choice.

Except in rare cases

for people whose power is not questioned, both government and

opposition senators

were asked to submit written copies of what they were going to say

before they spoke,

and they could only speak with the consent of the party leader in the

House. This gives

rise to a blurring of the distinction between the executive and the

legislature, with the

exception of the strength of the Independents in the Senate, who, by

and large are

listened to by both sides, and whose amendments to legislation are

frequently accepted,

either behind the chair, or on the floor in committee. In my experience,

Opposition

Members seldom move amendments, even though they will argue

against a specific

provision in a given bill.

A FURTHER CRITIQUE OF THE WESTMINSTER SYSTEM

The OAS Unit for the Promotion of Democracy (UPD), in coordination with the UNDP,

organized a conference on “Constitutional Reform in the Caribbean.” Held in Barbados

from January 20 to 22, 2002.

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A number of participants believed that the full weight of authoritarian traditions and the

degree to which colonial legacies continue to undermine governance in the region needed

to be acknowledged before any type of reform could be considered. In the view of Lloyd

Best, Director of the Trinidad Institute of the West Indies and Publisher of the Trinidad

and Tobago Review, the post-independence systems had in large part recreated the

colonial structure of central domination by a single, governor-type figure, namely, the

Prime Minister. In Trinidad and Tobago, he said, “What we’ve inherited is a West Indian

system run by people with a Westminster connection, but at every stage…essentially

designed, sometimes unwittingly, for the control of popular participation.” Sheilah

Solomon said that Caribbean societies were the only ones in the world originally created

to institutionalize inequality, and that after five hundred years many of the structures and

attitudes remained in place.

The excessive authority and overwhelming power constitutionally granted to the prime

minister, to the extent that, in the words of Prime Minister Gonsalves, “parliamentary

government is reduced not merely to cabinet government but to prime ministerial

government.” Prime Minister Gonsalves underlined the executive’s virtually

untrammelled authority with regard to government appointments—from the cabinet down

through the public service—and the dissolution of parliament, saying that “all roads lead

to the prime minister.”

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ELECTORAL PROCESSES

Adapted from: http://www.parliament.uk/works/elections.cfm

General elections are held in the UK as well as former English colonies of the Caribbean

at least every five years. However not all Parliaments run for the whole five years, and a

general election may be held before this period is up. In the event of a government having

a small majority the election may well take place much earlier.

In between general elections, by-elections are held as necessary to elect a new Member 

of Parliament to an individual constituency.

General elections are elections of the whole House of Commons at one time: one

Member of Parliament for each constituency in the United Kingdom. Each MP is elected

from the various candidates by a simple majority system in which each elector can cast

one vote. The candidates may be from one of the three major political parties, from a

minor party or from any other organisation that has been registered with the Electoral

Commission. If a candidate does not represent a registered party or group s/he may standas an 'Independent'.

Elections in the Commonwealth Caribbean:

The Electoral Experience of Jamaica and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago

Elections as a political process serve as the single most important mechanism for citizens

to participate in the selection of a government. When conducted to international

standards, elections tend to confer legitimacy on a government. In the Commonwealth

Caribbean, the electoral experience varies and tends to reflect not only the socio-political

culture of the member state but also its particular electoral system.

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The most distinctive feature of elections in the Commonwealth Caribbean is the use of 

the Westminster style of parliamentary democracy, where the legislative function of the

state is vested in an elected assembly. Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica are

Commonwealth members that gained independence from Great Britain in 1962. Both

countries have a bicameral parliament and a prime minister. Trinidad and Tobago

declared itself a republic in 1976 and has a president elected by the Parliament in place of 

a governor general.

In Jamaica the governor general is the official representative of the British monarch.

Both states use a first-past-the-post election system, which requires electors to vote for 

one candidate only. The candidate with the most votes is declared the winner, and the

 party securing the highest number of seats forms the government. This type of election

system is normally credited for its simplicity in terms of administration as well as the

speed that it allows in vote tabulation and the dissemination of election results. On the

other hand, the system is criticized for not operating well in a multiparty environment and

for tending to exclude small political parties that often fail to achieve any significant

electoral gains in terms of winning seats. It is also criticized for favoring the development

of political parties and policy platforms based on clan, ethnicity or region.

THE RULE OF LAW

The rule of law is the principle that governmental authority is legitimately exercised only

in accordance with written, publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance

with established procedure. The principle is intended to be a safeguard against arbitrary

governance. [source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_law]

In Commonwealth law, the most famous exposition of the concept of rule of law was laid

down by Albert Venn Dicey in his Law of the Constitution.

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"The rule of law is a political principle the classic exposition of which is in Dicey Law of 

the Constitution (10th Edn, 1959) p 187 et seq. Dicey identified three principles which

together establish the rule of law: (1) the absolute supremacy or predominance of regular 

law as opposed to the influence of arbitrary power; (2) equality before the law or the

equal subjection of all classes to the ordinary law of the land administered by the

ordinary courts; and (3) the law of the constitution is a consequence of the rights of 

individuals as defined and enforced by the courts."

Another definition of the rule of law can be found in - Halsbury's Laws of England, Vol:

Constitutional Law and Human Rights, paragraph 6, footnote 1 – 

“... every official, from the Prime Minister down to a constable or a collector of taxes, is

under the same responsibility for every act done without legal justification as any other 

citizen. The Reports abound with cases in which officials have been brought before the

courts, and made, in their personal capacity, liable to punishment, or to the payment of 

damages, for acts done in their official character but in excess of their lawful authority.

[Appointed government officials and politicians, alike] ... and all subordinates, though

carrying out the commands of their official superiors, are as responsible for any act which

the law does not authorise as is any private and unofficial person.”

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MIGRATORY LABOUR.

Diaspora, Migration and Development in the Caribbean

Keith Nurse

http://www.focal.ca/pdf/migration_caribbean.pdf 

Migration is one of the defining features of the modern Caribbean since colonization,

slavery and indentureship. In the last fifty years the Caribbean has shifted from being a

net importer of labour to become a net exporter. The Caribbean has one of the largest

diasporic communities in the world, in proportion to population (Stalker 2003). For 

example, it is estimated that the Cubans and Dominicans in the USA are equivalent to 8%

of their respective populations of origin (UNECLAC 2002: 237). And, in some of the

ministates in the region like St. Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, and Belize, annual labour 

migration accounts for as much as 12% of their population, thereby transferring

their population growth (Mittelman 2000: 60).

The debate on the value and significance of labour migration and diasporic economic

relations to the Caribbean has been articulated since the late 1960s. There were several

studies that examined the benefits to the Caribbean from the establishment of 

transnational communities (Friedlander 1965; Frucht 1968; Henderson 1970; Palmer 

1974; Philpott 1973; UNITAR 1970). The findings from these studies on balance were

quite critical of the developmental efficacy of emigration. In short, the studies point to the

loss of economically active workers, especially the highly educated on account of the

 brain drain and question whether migration and remittances go beyond securing an

improved standard of living for some migrants, their families and local communities

to contribute to national and regional development.

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The issue of migration and development has resurfaced since the late 1990s with the

rapid growth in workers remittances, the proliferation of trans-national networks, the

erosion of nation-state sovereignty and the emergence of trans-national communities and

hybrid cultural identities (Addy 2002; Castles 2000; Duany 2002)

THE STATISTICS – The receiving countries

The top labour-exporting countries from the Caribbean are Cuba, the Dominican

Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Guyana. Other major sending countries are non-independent

territories like Puerto Rico, the French Overseas Departments, and the Netherlands

Antilles. The international migration of Caribbean people is largely to North America

(the US and Canada) and former colonizer countries in Europe. The US is the

number one destination by a significant margin, and is estimated to account for as much

as 75% of the Caribbean-born and first generation diaspora (Segal1996). The next largest

receiving countries are the UK, Canada, the Netherlands, and France (see table 1).

Estimates from Table 1 put the size of the Caribbean diaspora in the mid-1990s at 6

million (not including undocumented migrants).

THE HISTORY & IMPACT

Caribbean emigration occurred in two waves. The first wave occurred during the post

World War II boom in the Western economies in the 1950s and 1960s on account of pull

factors like full employment and labour shortages in unskilled and semiskilled jobs. The

second wave took place in the late 1970s and 1990s as a result of global economic

restructuring and economic and social decline in Caribbean countries.

Caribbean emigration also had a strong pull factor in the increased demand for service

workers and professionals (e.g. domestics, teachers, nurses, doctors) in the North Atlantic

countries. There have also been political reasons for Caribbean migration as exemplified

 by the case of the Cuban Mariel boatlift in 1980 and the “rafters crisis” of 1994 as well as

the Haitian exodus on account of political turmoil at home (IOM2000).

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DIRECT IMPACT: Remittances & consumption patterns

The growth of the diasporic economy has made a substantial contribution to a more

favourable balance of payments position in several labour exporting territories in the

Caribbean. The largest recipients were the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Cuba and

Haiti. In international perspective, Jamaica and Dominican Republic are in the top five

remittances recipients in per capita terms. It is estimated that approximately US$5.7

 billion in remittances were sent to the Caribbean in 2002 (see table 5). Remittances

have emerged to be the fastest growing and most stable source of capital flow and foreign

exchange in the last decade

Remittances are a major source of income for many lower-income households around the

region (Itzigsohn 1995). In the case of Jamaica it is reported, “in some rural areas,40%

of households derive significant financial support from relatives working abroad or in one

of the major cities” (World Bank 2003: 45). In many respects, remittances are filling the

gaps that the state and development agencies have been unable to plug.

On the other hand, it is observed that remittances and other transfers of goods increase

external dependency, promote Western consumption styles and cause inflationary

 pressures. After expenditures on food, education and housing there often is not

enough to be invested in productive assets although it is observed that remittances are

 being used to fund some small business investments (Chevannes & Ricketts 1997).

Importantly, rather than stemming the tide of migrants, remittances tends to encourage

the outflow of new migrants. This relates to the deepening culture of emigration that acts

as a disincentive to home investment and human capital formation. The problem also

relates to the structure of accumulation in the sending societies. The problem is

that traditionally the injection of foreign capital has had low levels of retention and is

therefore unlikely to generate new business and employment in the sending societies.

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MIGRATION & LABOUR: Brain Drain verse Brain Gain

Migration can ease pressure on labour markets, and reduce unemployment, poverty and

social inequality if it is surplus labour that is exported. It is also suggested that return

migrants are an important source of skills, expertise and ideas (i.e. brain gain, circulation

or exchange) to be drawn on for national and regional development. The problem for the

Caribbean is that it is not surplus or under-employed labour that is the main group of 

migrants. Instead, it is the highly skilled and educated. The evidence for brain gain is

limited relative to the outflow.

The well educated and skilled are the most mobile group of migrants because they are in

high demand in OECD countries, but also because they can afford to migrate. The cost of 

migration is less of a factor for those countries that are in close proximity to labour 

importing countries.

It can be argued that the departure of highly skilled migrants reduces productivity in

specific sectors of the economy and creates labour gaps even in a context of high

unemployment. This is exemplified by the loss of human resources that are not easily

replaced, as is the case with the migration of teachers and medical professionals from the

Caribbean.

The problem is more acute due to the wider income gap between the sending and the

receiving countries. This is because the sending societies are becoming increasingly

uncompetitive in the global labour market for these skills. The exodus of valuable

 professional skills compromises broader development goals. For example, many

government and development agencies find it difficult to recruit local Professionals

 because the 'best and the brightest' have migrated. Ultimately, these agencies have to

resort to employing expatriates from a lower wage territory. For example, Cuban and

African doctors and Cuban nurses are filling the labour shortage of medical professionals

in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Cuba has a labour surplus in the medical field but

countries in Africa have lower doctor/patient ratios than the Caribbean.

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MIGRATION ANALYSIS: Good or Bad?

These observations reinforce the argument that remittances are only one element of the

diasporic economy and it raises the question whether remittances alone can outweigh the

loss of investment in human resource development and the replacement and opportunity

cost undertaken by labour exporting countries.

DEPORTATION AND SECURITY: A real test for the Justice System & Rule of 

Law

Contemporary migration has generated a new context of international security for the

Americas. One issue that has become of utmost importance to the Caribbean is the

deportation of criminals who are non-American nationals. The introduction of 

anti-crime and anti-terrorism policies in the 1990s is part of a more aggressive

criminal deportation policy to reduce crime and lower the US taxpayer's burden

in terms of incarceration. Large shares of the criminals removed from the US have

 been deported to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. In 1999 and 2000,

21,000 or two-thirds of the violent criminal illegal aliens that were removed

were Mexicans.

The Caribbean saw a total of 34,411 persons, 71% of whom had committed criminal

offences, deported from the US between 1993 and 1999. The Dominican Republic, Haiti

and Jamaica were the main source countries for the deportees (Griffin 2002: 73).

Criminals have also been deported from Canada. In 1999, Canada deported

approximately 1,100 people on criminal grounds, most of who were returned to the

Caribbean.

The impact of the Canadian and US deportation policies on the Caribbean is claimed by

governments to be among the main causes for the increased incidence of violent crime. It

is often argued that the deportees are introducing new skills and trans-national networks

into the region that contribute to drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping and

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immigrant smuggling. Caribbean governments have also expressed grave concern that the

repatriation of criminals has occurred without proper notification and identification of 

deportees and there are no support mechanisms to reintroduce them into Caribbean

society. Caribbean governments also point out that many of the deportees have lived in

the US and Canada for so long that they have no family members and social networks in

the countries that they have been repatriated to.

However, based on the crime data from Belize, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago,

Griffin concludes that the data is either inconclusive or there is no statistical significant

relationship between criminal deportation and the increase incrime in these territories.He

also hastens to add that this “does not mean that there is not a substantive relationship”

(2002: 73-74).

SPORTS – U.K. (CRICKET, SOCCER) & USA (BASKET BALL, TRACK & FIELD)

Cricket

Cricket in the Caribbean is unique as a sport because it has a West Indian team, rather 

than teams from various Caribbean islands. However, this is less surprising when one

considers the background of the game, which is largely based on social hierarchy.

Teams are divided into Players and Gentlemen, and the Gentlemen are the leaders of the

team. The social structure of the British colonies went a long way toward making it easy

to define these teams along racial lines.

As children grow up immersed in this popular game, cricket is played in the streets. Some

of cricket's most famous champions have been from these West Indies teams.

Furthermore, the game has served for an outlet against racial issues through more recent

years.

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Though many other sports have been popular throughout the Caribbean, these four truly

transcend national barriers. They've become popular with many islanders regardless of 

the race, income, or even language of the players.

The game of cricket has a known history spanning from the 16th century to the present

day, with international matches played since 1844, although the official history of 

international Test cricket began in 1877. During this time, the game developed from its

origins in England into a game which is now played professionally in most of the

Commonwealth of Nations

Football

The history of association football can be traced back into ancient times, but the modern

game has its roots firmly in the traditional football games played at the public schools of 

England. By the mid-19th century, the enthusiasm that some former public school pupils

still had for the games of their youth led to them forming amateur football clubs, each

 playing to the rules of a particular school. When teams from different traditions played

each other there were often disputes about exactly how the game should be played. In1863 some of the English clubs met at the Freemason's Tavern, London to form the The

Football Association (FA) with the aim of creating a universal set of rules that would

allow clubs to play each other without dispute. The impact of the FA was not immediate

as football was still very much an amateur activity. The first professional clubs were

formed once the working classes took up the sport, and businessmen saw an opportunity

to make money from spectators coming to see star players. Once professionalism took 

hold the popularity of the game became immense and was soon spread throughout the

world by British expatriates/Colonalists.

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Track & Field

Modern athletic events are usually organized around a 400 metre running track, on which

most of the running events take place. Field events (vaulting, jumping, and throwing)

often take place in the field in the centre of the running track.

Many athletic events have an ancient origin and were already conducted in competitive

form by the ancient Greeks. Athletics was included in the first modern Olympic Games in

1896 and has been part of the program ever since, providing the backbone of the

Olympics. Women were not allowed to participate in track and field events in the

Olympics until 1928. An international governing body, the IAAF was founded in 1912.

The IAAF established separate outdoor World Championships in 1983. Other major 

events include the World Indoor Championships and the European Championships. The

sport has a very high profile during major championships, especially the Olympics, but

otherwise ranks well down the list of sports by public interest in almost all countries. The

leading regular circuit of events takes place in Europe each summer, and includes the

Golden League events.

The diffusion of track & field into a west Indian/Caribbean mainstream sport was in part

mainly due to the mass media disseminating information of the success of USA athletesat various Olympics and World Championships.

Basketball

Dr. James Naismith is known world-wide as the inventor of basketball. He was born in

1861 in Ramsay township, near Almonte, Ontario, Canada.

 Naismith watched his sport, basketball, introduced in many nations by the YMCA

movement as early as 1893. Basketball was introduced at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.

Today basketball has grown to become one of the world's most popular sports.

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In 1946, the National Basketball Association was formed, organizing the top professional

teams and leading to greater popularity of the professional game which was closely

followed in the Caribbean via media transmissions.

RELIGION

Religion in the Caribbean is linked to the external influences of colonisation, immigration

and indentureship as well as the efforts of the missionaries to covert Amerindians,

African slaves and Indentured labours to Christianity. The larger territories of the

English speaking Caribbean have a greater mix ranging from traditional Catholicism to

conventional Christians intermix with the Asian backed Hinduism and Islam as seen in

Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana.

In the Leeward Islands and Jamaica the contemporary period presents religious

affiliations moving towards North American denominations of Pentecostals and

Evangelists.

In the Caribbean the concept of syncretism or the merging of different systems or beliefs

have been used to describe the blending of beliefs system that were previously suppress

(e.g. African religious practices) with European and American religious denominations.

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