Reviewing Stone on garrisons

Robert Buddan, Contributor

Now that Christopher Coke has been apprehended, we might be at a point of knowing a lot more about the west Kingston garrison constituency of which he was 'don'. He said he had much to say. We might consider if the State was used for his political overthrow, and if there is a succession process underway, and if west Kingston is entering another phase of life as a garrison, what shape and form that would take.

The first international market reaction to Coke's capture came the day after. Barclays Capital, which had been among the first last year to warn of Government's eventual default (in February) said Coke's capture won't solve the gang violence hurting the economy and Jamaica is heading for default again unless it "restructures" its debt.

It is a good time, therefore, to reflect on garrisons and where they are coming from. The late professor of political sociology, Carl Stone noted (in 1988), "the first recorded case of extensive overvoting was in west Kingston in the 1974 local government election. West Kingston is, therefore, a trendsetter in this regard". Overvoting has been one sign of a garrison. This is usually taken to implicate the political candidates.

However, Professor Stone said in 1988, "There is no evidence to suggest Mr Seaga, Miss Simpson or Mr Anthony Spaulding, (former member of Parliament for South St Andrew) were ever directly involved in organising these electoral malpractices. The evidence suggests these actions are being carried out by overzealous constituency activists determined to impress their candidates with evidence of how effectively they control the constituency. To suggest political leaders are responsible would be less than accurate or truthful."

Professor Stone found that overvoting was not even necessary in these cases. He wrote, "Political surveys done in South Western St Andrew, South St Andrew and West Kingston indicate that Miss Portia Simpson, Mr Bobby Jones and Mr Edward Seaga would win any election held in these constituencies under conditions of a free and fair ballot." These were 'safe seats'.

Patronage

Garrisons are usually explained by patronage. For example, politicians build housing schemes to win loyalty and votes. But again, Stone did not automatically and indiscriminately impute such motives. He wrote that Mr Seaga changed the political landscape of West Kingston by turning 'Back-o-Wall', one of the city's worst slums, into Tivoli Gardens, a well-housed community provided with extensive infrastructure and facilities.

Tony Spaulding changed the political face of South St Andrew by rebuilding large sections of Trench Town, turning shacks and substandard housing into new dwellings. He built 40,000 mostly inner-city houses, the most for any similar period by any administration.

But Stone also indicated there were political motives behind building houses in Tivoli with unintended effects in South West St Andrew: "Where PNP voters were bulldozed out of West Kingston and ended up in the adjoining South West St Andrew constituency, the exodus turns South West into a PNP stronghold. The charismatic appeal of Portia Simpson completed the process."

Overvoting in South West St Andrew preceded Portia Simpson. The constituency, previously a swing constituency, now became a stronghold because of the exodus of PNP supporters from a neighbouring constituency. Portia Simpson's charisma was an additional factor, combined with the housing developments taking place in the constituency. She would have won elections there without the unsolicited help of overzealous supporters.

Stone observed that three things came to characterise garrisons: (1) There is strong support for the candidate. (2) Gunmen (partisans, criminals, mercenaries and social parasites) get active in the political process and use the threat of violence to force citizens into submitting to their will. (3) The electoral malpractices are popular because they represent the intensity of enthusiasm for the candidate and are intended to show just how loyal the supporters are.

The political sociologist

We should turn to Stone, the political sociologist, to understand more about the communities of people within these constituencies. Garrison constituencies reflect homogenous voting. This means people in a large number of polling divisions vote as one. The impression might be given that they are forced to do so by dons. But Stone emphasised the effect of socialisation, a powerful force found in Northern St Andrew as much as in Southern St Andrew. Stone explained:

"There are strong local-level agencies of political socialisation which function to maintain stability in the level of party voting. These include community and neighbourhood pressures and community influentials." These influentials might be dons, but more often are family, teachers, police, religious leaders, etc., as they generally tend to be everywhere.

There is a social demographic to consider as well. High levels of illiteracy cause people to depend on face-to-face word-of-mouth messages from those influentials around them. When communities are small and closely knit by the high levels of concentration of people living in the same tenement and zinc-fence yards, socialisation becomes a powerful force.

Stone made a very telling and often ignored point. He said, "The high level of unemployment and own-account trading activities result in a large proportion of the community being at home or in the neighbourhood most of the time." This reinforces the community-socialising effects. Other citizens who go out of their communities to work or study for great lengths of time each day are exposed to more cross-cutting influences and 'influentials'.

Political formations

Stone goes on to speak of how these constituencies develop political formations and identities. An explicit sense of territory develops, complemented by identification with one or the other of the two parties. But even then, I surmise, this consciousness of territory isn't only politically contrived. It is a product of the geographically based constituency system of elections and associated two-party competitive system we inherited. The alternative would be non-territorial voting.

Much of what has been said about garrisons lacks the history of their evolution over time, a sociology of their social dynamics and informality and a political science of the consequences of the electoral system on party politics. On the other hand, too much of it is overly political. The problem is too conveniently reduced to one thing - politics. There are hints from newer, post-Stone studies that are showing the many forces that have come together over time to create garrisons. These include the kind of urbanisation, inner-city character, informal settlements and inequalities that have been a part of our history and process of a failed modernisation.

Since Carl Stone's time, we have made progress on electoral reform. The National Housing Trust has taken politics out of many housing schemes. Voting has been observed to be more free and fair. Overvoting has declined. Elections have been less violent. We have entered extradition treaties and cooperation against drug kingpins that have removed some of them. Unemployment and poverty have been significantly reduced. But crime and gangs grew. Inner cities and rural communities remain miserable. Tivoli's own role in criminal and political violence has been exceptional. We now need nationwide community building.

Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Email: Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm.