Personalization of Power in an Elected Government: Eric Williams and Trinidad and Tobago, 1973-1981

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs. A n article written for my forthcoming book on Trinidad andTobago argues that the events of 1969-1970 in Trinidad should be seen as a result of a process of delegitimization-both personal and systematic-and that the public declaration by Trinidad and Tobago's prime minister of his intention to resign as political leader of the governing party was an attempt to arrest that process. My argument is that the attempt failed, and that by December 1973, The leader of the People's National Movement and Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago had come full circle. In 1956 the business community, the established churches and some elements of the East Indian community were opposed to his ascendency in the political system. By 1973, it was these elements that were urging him to stay [Parris, forthcoming].Although continuing the discussion, this article focuses more on the consequences for the political system of the continued attempt to arrest the process of delegitimization. It really asks the question: What kinds of responses did this continuing process evoke from the prime minister and political leader, and what kind of system emerged?Our contention is that the period 1973-1981 reveals increased domination of the system by the prime minister and political leader. This domination, we contend, displayed the following major characteristic-rule through "interlocking directorates." Earlier Thinking on the Phenomenon As early as 1969, Adrian Espinet and Jacques Farmer took the position that Eric Williams, prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, ruled over a system which "in fact, if not in principle, comes closer to the Republican presidential type than to the nominal Westminster Cabinet model (Espinet and Farmer, 1969).In examining the specific features of this system, they contended that no Commonwealth Prime Minister, not even Nkrumah at the height of his powers, has held so much personal control-direct and indirect-over the portfolios of his government. Finance, Planning, Development, Tobago Affairs, Community Development, local Government-all fall more or less directly within his competence.... Williams, in short, is the only begetter [Espinet and Farmer, 1969: 3].

Conventional politics or revolution: Black Power and the radical challenge to the Westminster model in the Caribbean

“…Continued state harassment, and a refusal to engage with 'conventional politics' diminished the threat NJAC posed to the dominant ruling party, which in fact saw a surge in membership after April 1970, 14 just as numbers at NJAC rallies drastically dwindled. 15 As scholars such as Parris (1983) and Ryan (2009) have argued, subsequent constitutional reforms in Trinidad did little to trouble the waters. Indeed the Republican Constitution, which came into effect on 1 August 1976, increased the powers of the Prime Minister, who could now, for example, have a 'wholly selected cabinet [while] more bills could be introduced into the wholly selected Senate' (Parris, 1983, p. 178).…”