Race ethnicity and the political economy of national entrepreneural elites in Jamaica
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Abstract
This monograph is a study of social stratification and
the distribution of national politico-economic power in
Jamaica. It recognizes the existence of stratified social
groupings on the Island, but does not look at social stratiication from the perspective of the rural folk, the urban
wage laborer, the lumpenproletariat, or the masses. Instead,
the monograph focuses on those native born Jamaicans, who
wield influence in the political realm by virtue of their economic
activities as national entrepreneurial elites. It thus
examines who controls the largest corporations on the Island
(excluding sugar and bauxite), how this corporate control is
achieved, and how it is maintained and transferred.
Anthropological studies of the dominant economic section
(that is, the national entrepreneurial elite) are necessary
precisely because it is often the members of this section who
exercise influence over politico-administrative decision-making
of national, regional (Caribbean), multinational, and international significance. It is generally assumed that the
White population in Jamaica controls a disproportionate concentration
of corporate capital, while at the same time apportioning
for itself an abundant variety of the Island's
scarce material and social services. However, a more rigorous
examination of the racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds of
Jamaica's national entrepreneurial elite suggests that the
White population is not socially and culturally homogeneous.
Some White segments are more successful than others. A
study of Jamaican social stratification from a purely politico-
economic approach misses the significant input of cultural
factors in the allocation of individuals to hierarchically
distributed social positions in society and denies the
role that ethnicity may play in the differential success of
some segments over others.
The study which follows examines the relationship among
the variables of politico-economic power, history, race, and
ethnicity in an effort to demonstrate that concentration on
only one of these organizational modes limits the scope of
understanding Jamaican social structure in general and
Jamaican social stratification in particular. The relevant
questions become: 1) Who occupies positions of political and
economic dominance? 2) What are the strategies by which certain
population segments achieve and maintain their command?
3) To what extent is ethnicity a factor in the allocation of
persons to stratified positions in society? and 4) Given Jamaica's present politico-economic (institutional) framework,
what is the likelihood that major structural and distributional
changes will occur in the future?
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This work is being made available in OpenBU by permission of its author, and is available for research purposes only. All rights are reserved to the author.