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ABSTRACT
This paper argues that the right to vote, though fundamental to democracy, has not been sufficiently appreciated as a major explanation of constitutional, social, economic, and democratic advancement in Jamaica and the English-speaking Caribbean. It provides a new interpretation of existing literature to show that universal adult suffrage should be regarded as an important explanation for the consolidation of democracy in the Caribbean and that many current reforms in Jamaica arise from the associated conditions that would make the right to vote more meaningful, thereby advancing democracy further.
The right to vote is the basic principle underlying democracy. Yet surprisingly, there is little study of the role that this right has played in the emergence and consolidation of Caribbean democracy. Studies have concentrated instead on the role of political parties, the character of political leadership, the negotiation of constitutions, and the contest of elections.
The right to vote might have been the most important instrument of the power of the people, or was at least a critical companion in a broader transformative process that contributed to the legitimization of parties, elections, leadership and constitutions. In any case, it deserves separate and specific attention, and it is timely that this be provided.
The year 2004 marks the 60th anniversary of universal adult suffrage in the Anglo-Caribbean. Adult suffrage began in Jamaica in 1944 and spread to the other islands between then and 1962. In that eighteen year period it created a democratic revolution among twelve small Caribbean countries and among eleven of those countries between 1944 and 1954. This period inaugurated mass politics in the Caribbean. The Caribbean masses had come onto the political stage of democracy for the first time in history. Mass elections combined with mass parties to produce mass politics.
In a larger context, adult suffrage was a feature of the twentieth century. One report informs us that, "The democratic ideal of multi-party election with universal adult suffrage became the dominant political form of the nation state in the 20th Century. In 1900 no country had achieved this. A century later most have. In the last 25 years of the century, 113 countries introduced multi-party elections".1
Adult suffrage (and the first elections under adult suffrage) was introduced in the Caribbean as...