One of the stories often left untold about survival in the states that comprise the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is the story of civil society and civil society organisations (CSOs). If one considers discussions of governance particularly within the field of politics, the known stories relate to the role of political parties, race , class , institutions, economic/financial stewardship and the role of external forces on these small, predominantly microstates. The members of CARICOM are most popularly known for sun, sea, sand, Bob Marley, Rihanna, Usain Bolt, cricket, carnival, and food. Yet, the resilience of Caribbean people and the somewhat unlikely viability of the states they occupy has been supported in no small part by myriad organisations that fill social, economic, and political gaps that have been left vacant by formal politics and the state apparatus. This element of Caribbean resilience seems to be overlooked in scholarly evaluations of the region. Also overlooked are the contributions that Caribbean civil societies and CSOs have played in integrating the region. Instead, Caribbean regional integration narratives seem to favour placing emphasis on formal regional structures and formal political processes. This book places civil society and CSOs in focus for their roles in helping to sustain the region and to scaffold regional integration in the Caribbean. It asserts that based on these contributions, civil society/CSOs should have space for inclusion in governance processes. Consequently, the central focus of this book is straightforward: it investigates the spaces that exist and that are absent for CSO participation in governance in the CARICOM region by examining both domestic and regional governance arrangements.
The domestic and regional contexts in this Caribbean region are not easy to comprehend independently of each other. Decisions made at the domestic level of individual states can affect the operation of the regional bodies in the Caribbean, especially since decision-making power in CARICOM and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) rests in the hands of heads of governments. Yet, decisions made by the collective of states at regional levels also have some influence on policymaking and legislative arrangements within domestic spaces. Therefore, examining both the domestic and regional avenues for civil society and CSO insertion in policy processes can add to an understanding of how civil society and CSOs are able (or are not able) to be involved in Caribbean processes of governance.
Since Caribbean states do not operate in a vacuum, particularly in light of their smallness and the ways in which size makes them highly porous to occurrences outside of the region, one cannot ignore the external context in understanding Caribbean governance processes at both domestic and regional levels. Hence, the influence of the international/global level on both regional and domestic occurrences in the Caribbean adds further complexity to this picture. However, one should emphasise that the Caribbean is not passively influenced by external forces. Even before the emergence of āglobalisationā, the Caribbean has affected and been affected by complex external occurrences. Caribbean territories were affected by occurrences external to the region because of their placement as colonies within imperial folds. This point notwithstanding, the Caribbean region also affected the international system through the historical contributions that the territories of this region made to building European empires during colonisation. Such matters could be discussed much further, but the point here is simply to acknowledge the importance of international or global context for understanding occurrences in the Caribbean, while still recognising that Caribbean states possess agency. So, although this book concentrates mostly on the domestic and the regional spaces in connection to cultures and practices surrounding civil society and CSOs in governance, it also prefaces shifts in governance practices in the direction of more openness to civil society/CSOs on global shifts towards neo-liberal globalisation and towards āgood governanceā narratives that emerged following the end of the Cold War. I will say more about this emphasis on the regional and domestic spaces and the global context a bit later, for now let us examine the focus on the CARICOM and the OECS cases as well as on civil society and CSOs.
1.1 The Choice of CARICOM, the OECS, Civil Society, and CSOs
The Caribbean is a diverse region, encompassing small-island territories scattered across the Caribbean Sea. Some of the Caribbean territories are independent, sovereign states and others, such as Martinique, Puerto Rico, and the British Virgin Islands, exist as overseas territories of France, the USA, and the UK respectively, as relics of the colonial history of the region. The region can also be conceptualised to include states, such as Guyana , Belize, and Suriname that are geographically located in South America. Further, the Caribbean encompasses varied languages, dialects, cultures, and political systems.1 Notwithstanding the multiple definitions of the region, this work concentrates on CARICOM and the sub-region of the OECS, and specifically the independent āEnglish-speakingā2 states within these groupings.
Although the emphasis on the English-speaking CARICOM and the OECS members provides limited treatment of the regionās civil society, CSOs, and of the Caribbean region itself, this concentration allows one to consider the relationships between domestic and regional occurrences within Caribbean regional integration ventures. As CARICOM and the OECS are the two best developed regional integration initiatives that exist in the region, a focus on these integration initiatives is relatively straightforward. Less straightforward though, may be the choice to focus on civil society and CSOs within these arrangements. So here it may be useful to answer the following question: What is civil society and what are CSOs?
In some ways this question is an easy one to answer: civil society is the independent public; it is a society that can act outside the control of the state and the market. CSOs are the varied groups that represent interests or concerns expressed within this type of society and are generally associations and groups that operate on a non-profit basis. Some examples of CSOs are youth groups, community groups, trade unions , business representative organisations, professional associations, environmental groups, charitable organisations, and sports clubs. However, one must note that this type of explanation is a simplification that hides some of the overlaps between civil society, the state, and the market in practice. The concept of civil society is also more complex than it may be portrayed because it is riddled with Western-centric exclusions that are inherent in the description of society as ācivilā. The requirement of ācivilityā and the notion that only certain ways of being and organising can be viewed as ācivilā, raises uncomfortable discussions when applied to Caribbean contexts. These matters pertaining to the complexities of civil society are presented more fully in Chapter 2 of this book, but, the simplified view of civil society can suffice for this introduction.
Apart from questions about the meaning of civil society, one may ask about the existence of CSOs in the Caribbean region, or about their real roles in the Caribbean. Serious examination of CSOs reveals that although CSOs in the region may have their weaknesses and may at times be politically invisible, such organisations are very much alive and in service of important day-to-day functions across the region. Bowen, for instance, has attempted to document some of these CSO contributions and in doing so has assessed that CSOs in the region generally conduct day-to-day work in (1) the delivery of social services, to provide some social safety for impoverished or vulnerable groups; (2) in community building, which also helps to provide a social safety net and allows for the provision of information, programmes, and activities to edify and empower communities; (3) in local economic development; and (4) in promoting and advancing sustainable development (Bowen 2013, 89ā91). Additionally, CSOs and CSO networks have been constructed beyond national territorial boundaries and in doing so have fostered webs of connections among people and groups from across the region. Thus, CSOs and CSO networks have played critical roles in connecting or integrating the region without official sanction of or orchestration from political directorates of the region. Regional CSOs, regional CSO umbrella groups, and regional CSO networks have provided for a level of regionalism outside of the state initiated and driven regional integration institutions of CARICOM and the OECS (Hinds Harrison 2013; Hinds 2007). One noteworthy example of the long history of such regional CSOs can be found in the British Guiana and West Indies Labour Congress that was established in 1926 and which evolved to become the Caribbean Labour Congress by 1945 (CLC). The CLC was important in advancing the regional agenda of independence as a West Indies Federation during the early 1950s (Bolland 2001, 506ā507; Lewis 1977, 42). This is one example that illustrates that CSOs have helped to build Caribbean regionalism even though they are not often given credit for their contributions to Caribbean regionalism.
Despite these CSO contributions at domestic and regional levels, CSOs continue to be relatively invisible when one peruses political appraisals of the region and its development. The invisibility of these groups in such analyses may perhaps be more connected to analystsā preferences for concentrating on formalised or elite structures in assessing Caribbean politics and development than it has to do with the significance or insignificance of CSOs. In other words, when one uses a lens that views politics and development as determined by formal political structures and formally recognised political and economic actors, it may be easy to miss the contributions of CSOs. This book highlights the ways in which CSO have helped to sustain Caribbean communities, their contributions to development in the region, and their place in bolstering Caribbean regionalism. As we look for new modalities to offer stronger governmental structures at the local and regional level, this book also asserts that, based on their contributions, CSOs should have opportunities to participate in processes of governance.
As may be clear by this point, this book is normative in its assertion that CSO involvement in governance is desirable. Following this assertion, this work examines the extent to which there have been opportunities for such participation in governance processes within individual Caribbean states and within the regional integration initiatives of CARICOM and the OECS. Further, this work contends that wider civil society should also be incorporated in processes that seek to govern peopleās lives. CSOs can function as convenient aggregators of concerns or interests but are also limited in their abilities to speak for people. So, both wider civil society and CSOs should find participatory space in governance processes. More normative still is the bookās contention that the inclusion of civil society and CSOs in governance should occur in order to enhance the quality of democracy . As such, participation should go beyond its role in enhancing the effectiveness of governance by serving the higher purpose of deepening and enhancing peopleās access to democracy . The following section provides a more detailed discussion of what this book sets out to accomplish.
1.2 Purpose and Analytical Approach
As previously stated, this work presents civil society and CSOs as important to the Caribbean by documenting some of the contributions that CSOs have made to Caribbean regionalism, and to the survival of Caribbean states. The work also discusses the application and salience of the terms civil society and CSOs that...