| In the 1970s, Prime Minister Michael Manley and his People's National Party (PNP) followed a democratic-socialist development path, undertaking radical structural changes which aroused the opposition of vested interests, both internal and external. The political pressure and withdrawal of capital by these groups led to the collapse of the Jamaican economy and to the subsequent defeat of the Manley government.; The succeeding Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) pursued a neoliberal economic agenda, dismantling the social reforms instituted under Manley and proceeded to install a model emphasizing export competitiveness and foreign private investment. Despite an abundance of resources from the West, the new orthodox liberal policies failed to substantially alter Jamaica's economic crisis and in 1989 led to the political demise of the JLP as well.; The returning PNP government chose an extreme version of free-market capitalism, relying heavily on international finance and foreign investment. A pro-US foreign policy and a commitment to limited government complemented the new strategy.; Building on existing theories, this work attempts to explain why the Jamaican government, under Manley's leadership in particular, abandoned the socialist-oriented policies pursued in the 1970s for the free-market model adopted by the PNP on its return to power. Analysis of the problem proceeds from three different levels—international, domestic and individual or cognitive—in the context of contending theoretical frameworks—dependency, realism and liberalism.; The findings strongly confirm the thesis contending that changes in the world economy and the chronic problem of dependency accounted largely for the shift in Jamaica's development strategy. Alternative theories focusing on domestic and cognitive factors were also explored, leading to the conclusion that internal political pressure and learning played a role as well. |
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