Caribbean Political Economy at the Crossroads: NAFTA and Regional Developmentalism

265 Pages·1998·14.045 MB·English

by  Don D. Marshall (auth.)

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Caribbean Political
Economy at the
Crossroads
NAFTA and Regional Developmentalism
Don D. Marshall
Research Fellow
Institute of Social and Economic Research
University of the West Indies
Bridgetown
Barbados
First published in Great Britain 1998 by
MACMULLANPRESSLTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-349-40328-8 ISBN 978-0-230-38986-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230389861
First published in the United States of America 1998 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-21462-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marshall, Don D.
Caribbean political economy at the crossroads: NAFfA and
regional developmentalism I Don D. Marshall.
p. cm. - (International political economy series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-21462-3
I. Caribbean, English-speaking-Economic policy. 2. Caribbean,
English-speaking-Economic conditions. 3. Canada. Treaties, etc.
1992 Oct. 7. 4. Capitalism--Caribbean, English-speaking. 5. North
America-Economic integration. 6. Economic development. I. Title.
II. Series.
HCI55.5.M37 1998
338.9729-<1c21 98-5592
CIP
© Don D. Marshall 1998
Softcover reprint of the hardcover lst edition 1998 978-0-333-71434-8
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with
written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by
the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources.
10987654 321
07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98
Contents
List of Tables VII
Preface viii
Acknowledgements x
List of Abbreviations xii
Introduction 1
1 Beyond the Paradigmatic Interregnum in Development
Theory: Rethinking Ascent in the International System 7
State-Centric Views of Ascent: Key Modernization
Arguments 10
Conclusions: Theorizing Ascent in the World System 33
Notes 38
2 The State and the Carihbean Development Experience 43
British Colonization of the Caribbean (1623-1945) 44
US Hegemony and the Caribbean: Transition and
Transformation 60
Conclusions 81
Notes 84
3 Global Restructuring and World System Continuity 90
Globalization Reconsidered 92
Globalization as Epoch 96
Twenty-First Century Capitalism and Upward Mobility 104
Conclusion 116
Notes 118
4 The Crisis of the National Option in the Caribbean 123
Key Economic Sectors 130
The State and Domestic Capital 141
Conclusion: the Caribbean and Twenty-First Century
Capitalism 144
Notes 147
V
vi Contents
5 NAFTA/FTAA and the New Articulation in the Americas:
'Re-Colonization' or Structural Opportunity? 153
NAFTNFTAA: Caribbean Responses and Perceptions 155
The Re-colonization Thesis: a Critique 159
NAFTA and the Onset of Strategic Positioning 162
Conclusion 174
Notes 176
6 Reconstituting State Power at the Regional Level: The
Road to Achieving Ascent in the Next Century 182
Part I: The Politics of Regional Development 184
Part II: Caribbean Offshore Services - Origins,
Prospects and Challenges 204
Conclusion 220
Notes 222
Select Bibliography 227
Index 248
List of Tables
2.1 Triangular Trade Balance with Britain (circa 1697) 50
2.2 External Aid in the Cold War Years 77
4.1 Commonwealth Caribbean: Major Economic Indicators
(1990) 124
4.2 1992 Product Composition of Commonwealth Caribbean
Exports to the OECD 127
4.3 The Geographic Destination of Commonwealth
Caribbean Exports (1990) 127
4.4 Caribbean Export-Preferential Profile in the
US Market (1992) 129
4.5 St. Lucian Banana Revenue Earnings 140
4.6 Share of Total Windward Island Banana Exports
(1990-95) 140
4.7 Commercial Bank Lending in the Eastern Caribbean 143
vii
Preface
CARIBBEAN POLITICAL ECONOMY AT THE
CROSSROADS: NAFTA AND REGIONAL
DEVELOPMENTALISM
This book examines the record of development and the prospects
for ascent in the anglophone Caribbean. It argues that a trans
formative dialectic is operating through the reconfiguring Americas.
NAFTA and its expansion open up possibilities for business link
ages, joint venture arrangements, and investment and trade creation
opportunities for participating countries. This is a structural devel
opment opportunity that Caribbean state managers can least ignore.
Certainly the region's historical legacy has been marked by missed
or squandered opportunities. Since the independence period,
developmentalist projects have been stultified by populist-statism
and the circulation ism of merchant capital in the individual coun
tries. For most of the last thirty years, however, the island-national
option appeared a secure one. The politics (Cold War) and struc
ture (trade network preferences) of the international political
economy proved beneficial for the newly independent Caribbean
states. Today, the shifting competitive dynamics of the international
system have very far-reaching implications for the nature of the
Caribbean political economy. Economies of scope and scale are
increasingly being favoured. The region has been caught napping
because capital accumulation remains rooted in distribution infra
structures and not production ones. Indeed, the hegemony of cir
culation over production in these parts points to the special
circumstances that attended the new political class at the time of
independence in the 1960s. The stability goal took paramount im
portance. State managers and the old commercial oligarchy became
united by a lowest common-denominator interest, that is, to reap
and extend the benefits of the status quo. The nature of this post
colonial arrangement meant that state managers would fail to deepen
the process of capital accumulation and industrialize. This book
argues that the Commonwealth Caribbean will be on better ground
to pursue economic recovery through a deeper form of regional
ization. The point stressed is that export-orientated development
Vlll
Preface IX
is a social transformation venture that goes beyond new fiscal meas
ures and market reforms. A new economic class of industrial en
trepreneurs must be engendered. The book concludes by considering
the form deeper regionalization should take as a precondition for
seizing opportunities presented by the NAFTA expansion process.