Caribbean History From
Colonialism to Independence
AM217
David Lambert
Lecture: Freedom or
dependency?
Tuesday 15th March,
11am-12pm
Political independence
Freedom or dependency?
1. Foundations of dependency
2. Postwar industrial strategies:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
Industrialisation-by-invitation
Operation Bootstrap
New World dependency theory
Socialist alternatives
3. The neo-liberal present
Foundations of dependency
• Since 1500s, the Caribbean has been shaped
by the interests and priorities of external powers
(profit and trade):
– precious metals
– cash crop exports
The plantation
Foundations of dependency
• Since 1500s, the Caribbean has been shaped
by the interests and priorities of external powers
(profit and trade):
– precious metals
– cash crop exports
• These economic activities have taken place
within a colonial framework that has prioritised
metropolitan (industrial) interests
• The region may have seen early
industrialisation, but this process was controlled
and directed by outside forces
Foundations of dependency
Colonial powers’ domination of the Caribbean bought
them development and systematically inhibited
development in the islands. Through core regions’
initial economic advantages, and mercantilist policies
by core states to protect their domestic economic
interests, core regions and peripheral regions are path
dependent, meaning that they tend to stay in similar
positions in the world system over time.
R. Potter et al., The Contemporary Caribbean, p. 321.
‘Industrialisation-by-invitation’
• Sir Arthur Lewis (19151991)
• Born in St. Lucia
• BSc and PhD at LSE
• Advised postindependence Ghana on
economic policy
• Became director of the
Caribbean Development
Bank in 1970
• Won the Nobel prize in
Economics in 1979
‘Industrialisation-by-invitation’
• Lewis recommended that Caribbean states
should pursue economic diversification and
industrialisation
• They could not industrialise autonomously and
needed to attract investment
• A response to failures of British colonialism
• Industrial growth required ‘wooing’ foreign
capitalists and capital through subsidies,
protections and other state support
• Greatest influence on English-speaking
Caribbean, but also Haiti and DR
‘Industrialisation-by-invitation’
• Yet, foreign investors have never been
persuaded to invest much in the region
• Region perceived as unstable and its workers as
‘unreliable’ and ‘ill-disciplined’
• Most of the investment that did come took the
form of assembly plants, lacking linkages to rest
of economy and capital intensive (therefore not
meeting local employment demands)
• Strategy did not lead to major expansion of
domestically-owned industries
‘Industrialisation-by-invitation’
Lewis persuasively argued that the Caribbean could
not attempt to industrialise autonomously, but must
instead rely on attracting outside capital, technology
and industry. The broader lesson from the Lewis
strategy is that historical dependency has bred new
forms in both theory and practice. Caribbean
countries have historically relied on imported industrial
and commercial goods and on foreign capital and
expertise to feed people, service industry and finance
internal capital expansion. Lewis extended this foreign
dependency and vulnerability, by establishing an
externally driven approach to industrialisation that
continues until the present.
R. Potter et al., The Contemporary Caribbean, p. 328.
Operation Bootstrap (Puerto Rico)
• Began in 1947
• Change to US law gave corporations tax
exemptions on income earned on the island if
then deposited in local banks
• Also, local officials attracted US investment
through industrial infrastructure and a relatively
skilled, cheap and non-unionised labour force
• Effect was a dramatic shift from sugar exports to
manufacturing
• Highest GDP growth rate in the hemisphere
(average of 5% from 1950s-1970s)
Operation Bootstrap (Puerto Rico)
Operation Bootstrap (Puerto Rico)
• Although apparently impressive, the wider
applicability of this approach is less certain...
– unique political circumstances of Puerto Rico
– serves to deepen dependency and vulnerability
– benefits not shared
• USA provides considerable subsidies ($9 billion
annually in 1980s)
• Linkages relatively weak
• High unemployment (20%+ since 1970s)
• Migration a coping strategy
New World dependency theory
• Partly conceived in opposition to Lewis’ model of
‘industrialisation-by-invitation’, which replicated
historical over-reliance on foreign capital and
failed to deliver sustained economic growth
• An alternative to ‘modernization theory’ more
broadly
Modernization Theory
Age of high
massconsumption
Drive to
maturity
Take-off
Preconditions
for take-off
Traditional
society
Time
New World dependency theory
New World dependency theory
• Partly conceived in opposition to Lewis’ model of
‘industrialisation-by-invitation’, which replicated
historical over-reliance on foreign capital and
failed to deliver sustained economic growth
• An alternative to ‘modernisation theory’ more
broadly
• Marxism-inspired
• Stimulated by ideas from Latin America in 1950s
• Also based on Caribbean’s own history,
including the legacies of the plantation system
(Plantation School of Caribbean economists)
New World dependency theory
Never before or since has there been so much
intellectual fervour in the English-speaking Caribbean
and even extending beyond it…The most vibrant
locale was Kingston, Jamaica, where new world
scholars at the University of the West Indies (UWI)
advised Michael Manley’s administration during the
1970s in its pursuit of democratic socialism…[A] range
of policy priorities emerged, such as investing in land
reform for small farmers, imposing a levy on the
bauxite exported by foreign companies, empowering
community councils, and committing to social welfare,
redistribution and equality.
R. Potter et al., The Contemporary Caribbean, p. 331.
The plantation
‘Plantation School’
• Lloyd Best (1934-2007)
• George Beckford (19341990)
• Norman Girvan (1941-)
• Argues that the grip of the
plantation must be
understood to enable
change
• Non-plantation production
crucial for such
transformation
Walter Rodney
• Walter Rodney (19421980)
• Born in Guyana
• BA at UWI and PhD at
SOAS
• Afrocentic writer on
African history and
proponent of socialist
development in Caribbean
• Excluded from parts of
Caribbean
• Assassinated in 1980
Socialist alternatives
• Some Caribbean states have tried socialist
alternatives to achieving economic development
• Cuba (1959-?) took the most radical path
• Other states have also experimented with more
moderate measures:
– British Guiana under Cheddi Jagan, 1961-64
– Jamaica under Michael Manley, 1972-80
– Grenada under Maurice Bishop, 1979-83
New World dependency theory
• Its moment had passed by 1980s because of…
– theoretical flaws (including determinism and
tautology)
– intellectual careerism
– failure of Manley’s People’s National Party to be truly
democratic socialist (and was outflanked on the right
locally and internationally)
– debt crisis from early 1980s, which led to shift in
governments’ focus from autonomous economic
development to attracting investment from global core
• Although neo-liberalism dominates Caribbean
economic thought, more flexible, less
deterministic forms of NWDT remain important
The neo-liberal present
• Today, Caribbean states are focused on
attracting foreign investors to generate new
exports
• Origins in debt crisis of 1980s, which left many
Caribbean governments insolvent
• They approached IMF and World Bank for
financial bailouts
• In exchange they had to agree to fiscal
conservatism, privatisation, currency
devaluation, open markets and policies to
promote foreign investment and non-traditional
exports (collectively known as ‘neo-liberalism’)
Export-processing zones
Export-processing zones
Export-processing zones (EPZs) are labour-intensive
manufacturing centres that involve the import of raw
materials and the export of factory products. EPZs
(more often called ‘free zones’ by their supporters) are
extraterritorial sites in which manufacturing can
proceed outside local regulations. EPZs have been
created to streamline importing and exporting and to
sidestep national laws that privilege some domestic
social groups over foreign industrial exporters. Most of
the new export-oriented manufacturing occurs in statedesignated free zones.
R. Potter et al., The Contemporary Caribbean, pp.
337-8.
Export-processing zones
The plantation
Political independence