Jamaica - Political Parties
The two major political parties have historical links with the two largest trade unions -- the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) with the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), and the People's National Party (PNP) with the National Workers Union (NWU).
Jamaica boasts a vibrant, uninterrupted multi-party representative democracy characterized by a healthy history of systematic alteration between the two major political parties since universal suffrage in 1944. Additionally, despite a history of partisan political conflicts especially around the time of election, there is widespreadrecognition of the importance of the vote in the democratic process among Jamaicans. Electoral participation has historically been quite high, reported to have been as high as 87 percent prior to 1980 and consistently above 70 percent up to 1993. Since the 1990s, however, the participation rate has averaged in the sixty percent range.
Historically crime and violence have been partly associated with gangs and the affiliation of some of these gangs to political parties – a connection and proliferation that became increasingly prominent in the post-independence years. These links were particularly highlighted in the politically and ideologically polarized environment of the 1970s when the development of ‘garrison’ constituencies – typically led by ‘dons’ or political henchmen – and bloc voting for a particular political party changed the landscape of crime. Subsequent evolution of gangs resulted in organized networks which perpetuate increased levels of organized criminal activities.
The deep polarization of the electorate along ideological lines that characterized the Jamaican political landscape during the 1970s, where supporters of the PNP were predominantly left leaning and those supporting the JLP were mostly sympathetic to the right, is no longer visible. Currently, differences between the two major parties from the perspective of ideology and policy approaches are no longer easily identified.
Jamaica's two-party system, which had its roots in the rivalry between William Alexander Bustamante and Norman W. Manley, resembles traditional North American patterns. Both parties — the JLP and PNP — were formed and operated by a relatively small number of men and with a high degree of British and intraparty cooperation. By the 1960s, politics had changed significantly from the time of the 1944 elections, when the country was predominantly rural and voting was based as much on local issues and personalities as on national affairs.
The JLP and PNP, responding to sectional interest groups, appeared to move closer to each other and away from the basic concerns of the population, namely, employment opportunities. Their paths later diverged, but some similarities remained. Both parties operated as multiclass alliances, whose adherents cut across class and racial lines. Both represented frequently shifting group interests and sought a large independent vote. Moreover, in their attempt to appeal to all sectors of the population for votes and funds, both parties adopted somewhat similar policies. Differences in foreign policy, however, became more pronounced.
The two-party arrangement differed from the British and United States systems in two important respects. One is that Jamaica's elites, from which the island's leaders have emerged, are closely knit groups; four of the nation's first five prime ministers were related. The other difference is that party identification, not race or class, is the primary political frame of reference. Each party has a fiercely loyal, almost tribal, inner core defined by family ties and neighborhood. Antagonism to the other party is passionate and frequently violent.
Despite the intensity of party rivalry in Jamaica, surveys revealed the increasing importance of the "swing vote" (uncommitted voters) in determining electoral outcomes. At the time of independence, the swing vote was only 5 percent, but by 1985 the percentage of uncommitted voters had stabilized at 26. The growth of the swing vote was accompanied by a periodic pattern of support for the two parties. For example, the percentage of voters not committed to either the JLP or the PNP rose from 15 percent in November 1976 to 40 percent by mid-1978. During the same period, PNP support declined from 40 to 28 percent, whereas that of the JLP fell from 37 to 32 percent. These declines were interpreted at the time as a loss of support for the two major parties.
Nevertheless, by December 1979 the percentage of uncommitted voters had dropped back down to 16, whereas JLP support had climbed from 32 to 47 percent and PNP support from 28 to 37 percent. Although their political interest was seasonal, the uncommitted voters remained an integral part of the support for the two major parties.
Unlike much of Hispanic Latin America and many former colonies in Africa and Asia, Jamaica has enjoyed a tradition of political stability, notwithstanding the escalating political violence on the island during the 1974-80 period. The JLP and PNP alternated in power every ten years in the general elections held between 1955 and 1980. Turnout at the polls during the postwar period and the first 25 years of independence was consistently high, in contrast to the average 3-percent voting rate in the seven general legislative elections held between 1901 and 1934. Voter participation increased steadily from 65 percent of the electorate, or 495,000, in 1955 to 85 percent, or 736,000, in 1976.
On every politically sensitive issue, ranging from security and police matters to government economic policies and political issues, JLP and PNP opinions were separated by a huge gap and deep mutual distrust. Somewhat contradictorily, however, Stone Polls found that during the 1970s and 1980s the public gradually became less inclined to vote according to partisan loyalties.
Jamaica's two-party system had not been conducive to the emergence of a third parliamentary party. During the nation's first twenty-five years of independence, twenty-seven minor political parties had tried to take over that role but had become defunct within a year. There is no constitutional impediment, however, to third-party representatives or even independents becoming recognized as "the opposition," provided they can win the second largest bloc of seats in Parliament. Jamaicans generally were satisfied with the two-party system. A February 1985 Stone Poll indicated that a 78-percent majority saw no need for a new party.
The communist Worker's Party of Jamaica [WPJ], having functioned as Jamaica's officially recognized third party since the late 1970s, has set a longevity record. Founded by Trevor Munroe, its secretary general, on December 17, 1978, the WPJ (formerly known as the Workers Liberation League) adopted a pro-Moscow, avowedly Marxist- Leninist orientation. It advocated a "nonalignment" policy for Jamaica that Munroe defined as distancing the country from the United States and Britain.
Munroe, who had earned a doctorate at Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes scholar, had held the position of senior lecturer in government at the UWI. According to a March 1985 Stone Poll, the WPJ had increased its popular support from 3 to 4 percent, but 58 percent ofJamaicans were still hostile to the party. The WPJ failed to elect a single councillor islandwide in the July 1986 local elections; its best showing in any of the parishes was 7 percent. The WPJ's relations with Cuba were strained in the mid-1980s because of WPJ criticism of Cuba's perceived failure to back the regime of Bernard Coard and Hudson Austin in Grenada that overthrew and assassinated Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. The Communist Party of Cuba and the WPJ repaired relations, however, and Munroe attended the Third Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in Havana in early February 1986.
A United States resident, James Chrisholm, founded another third party of quite different orientation, the Jamaican-American Party (JAP), on April 5, 1986. Advocating a United States statehood platform, the JAP nominated six candidates in the July 29, 1986, local elections. Less than 1 percent ofJamaicans questioned in a May 1986 Stone Poll indicated they would vote for the JAP, although 41 percent had heard about it.
The center-right National Democratic Movement (NDM) was established in 1995; it does not have links with any particular trade union, and is a marginal movement.
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