| Chapter 1: | Jamaican Governance and Citizen Politics in Context |
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First, the quotation points to the possibility of a dangerous deficit in democratic revitalization in Jamaica, embodied in the ostensible weaknesses in the institutions, structures, and processes of both representative government and civil society. Second, it predicts that in the absence of renewed procedures and practices of democratic strengthening, ordinary citizens will have little option but to install autonomous and alternative modes of governance and devise their own means to obtain redress or solve their problems. Although civil society is not a panacea, its promise is frequently touted as the sine qua non to building and consolidating democracy. It is now a truism that democracy requires a civic organization characterized by voluntarism, independent associations, and a balance of powers between the state and society. Indeed, the theoretical consensus is that the more active, pluralistic, institutionalized, and democratic civil society is and the more effectively it balances the tensions in its relationship with the state—tensions between autonomy and cooperation, vigilance and loyalty, skepticism and trust, and assertiveness and civility—the more likely it is that democracy will emerge and endure. Democracy, in contrast, requires a civic culture and civic virtues where the habits of participation and deliberation as well as dispositions of tolerance, civility, nonviolence, decency, and trust can be learned and reproduced (B. R. Barber, 1998; Diamond, 1994; Fine & Rai, 1997; Foley & Edwards, 1996; Held, 1996; Keane, 1988b; Putnam, 1993, 1995, 2002; Swift, 1999).
It follows, therefore, that civil society’s mediating role as a buffer between citizens and the state and as a social value founded on civility renders it crucial to any notion of renewing democracy—and, in accordance with Munroe’s grim prediction, to what may instead be called anarchy deterrence in Jamaica. At the same time, although the fact is often ignored in the scholarship on civil society, it is important to recognize that not all citizen organizations carry equal potential to perform democracy-building functions. This is because their ability to do so depends significantly on their character—that is, what type of group they are and what kind of activities they engage in. Consequently, whereas bowling leagues, Rotary clubs, church groups, charities, and