| Chapter 1: | Jamaican Governance and Citizen Politics in Context |
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examines how the state acts in response to the demands that are made upon it. Because the fundamental challenge of this book is to balance citizens’ right to protest their socioeconomic conditions with the negative implications of disruptive protests for civil politics and civil society more broadly, the chapter examines how and why state responses (including the action of political officials—MPs and activists) may seemingly legitimize uncivil protest strategies. This chapter, in short, discloses (and critically examines) the possibilities and limits of the existing model of protest politics in Jamaica.
The book concludes with reflections on the viability of uncivil citizen politics for the renewal of civil society. Importantly, it also argues for the refashioning of the current theoretical perspectives to take account of uncivil manifestations and tendencies that stand in the way of the development of civil politics and real civil societies. It reiterates that a culture of civility depends as much on the transformation of the state (including its own public civility, performance, and accountability) as on the intervention by and participation of the various organs of civil society. I now take a closer look at the current and historical theorizing about civil society and the implications this may hold for the practice and conduct of civilian politics in Jamaica.