Yes to Local Government, No to Participatory Democracy: The Local Governance Reform Dilemma in Trinidad, St. Lucia and St. Vincent

In the Commonwealth Caribbean countries of St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago, local government reform has been and continues to remain on the agenda. The proposals are all based on the philosophy that there should be elected local government, which in turn should facilitate substantive levels of participatory democracy and citizen involvement. But whilst there is general acceptance of this philosophy, central governments are seemingly reluctant to implement any reforms which would return power to the people. Citizen involvement and participatory democracy has thus become the bug-bear in the process, and has led to the stalling of local government reform in all three countries. With reforms having stalled, one wonders whether the next step will be the dissolution of systems of local government in these states

Participative democracy or party/race consolidation

Bien que les manifestes des trois partis politiques en lice lors des élections du gouvernement local de Trinidad en 1996, aient suggéré que les élections concernaient surtout des questions locales gouvernementales, il n’en demeure pas moins vrai que les problèmes d’ethnicité, de race et de communalisme ont réellement bouleversé la campagne, dans la course aux élections. Nonobstant le fait que les manifestes étaient centrés sur l’absence presque totale de décentralisation du pouvoir et de l’autorité aux organismes gouvernementaux locaux, les préoccupations d’autonomie locale et le manque d’efficacité du système gouvernemental local, la véritable campagne semble avoir voué ces considérations à un rang auxiliaire dans le contexte électoral. Bien sûr, un tel scénario s’explique par le fait que les élections de 1996 du Gouvernement local se sont déroulées dans l’ombre des élections parlementaires de 1996 et ont, de ce fait, redynamisé les partis politiques autant que ranimé les divisions raciales et même les tensions de la société trinidadienne. Les élections ont effectivement contribué à restructurer et à consolider les blocs raciaux et politiques existants sur la scène trinidadienne.Whereas the manifestos of the three political parties which contested the 1996 local government elections, in Trinidad, suggested that the elections were really about local government issues, the fact remains that issues of ethnicity, race and communalism served to overwhelm the actual campaigning in the run up to the elections. Notwithstanding that the manifestos focussed on the near lack of devolution of power and authority to the local government corporations, the concerns of local autonomy, and the lack of effectiveness of local government system, the actual campaign seemed to have destined these considerations to being ancillary issues within the context of the elections. Of course such a scenario is explained by the fact that the 1996 local government election came in the shadow of the 1996 Parliamentary elections, and as such had the effect of re-energizing party politics as well as racial divisions and even tensions in the Trinidad society. Effectively, the elections served to streamline and consolidate the political and racial blocs which exist in the Trinidad setting