Making Notes: The Plantation School of Thought

 Key Thinkers 

Lloyd Best

Most influential work "Independent thought and Caribbean freedom" (1967)

Considered as his best-known article, Best takes a pan-Caribbean vision, derived from the historical influence of the plantation system. He attempts to critically assess the region’s economic dependency with a particular focus on the government industrialisation strategies of the day, whilst simultaneously rejecting the metropolitan imperialism of both Western and Eastern economic orthodoxies. His central argument is that social change begins with ideas and through ‘independent thought’ Caribbean freedom can be attained.

George Beckford

Most influential work"Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in Plantation Economies of the Third World" (1972)

Beckford's central focus  was  on  the  persistence  of  underdevelopment which he posited is perpetuated  by the deeply  entrenched  social,  commercial  and cultural  systems  established  by  systems of enslavement, formulated  under  the  plantation system.  Beginning with an outline of the main distinguishing features of plantation systems and societies that encompass interrelated political social and economic patterns from a cross-national comparative perspective, its organizational and institutional features as well as a systematic attempt to diagnose the features of plantation systems which retard and arrest development. Drawing heavily on the work of Lloyd Best and the writers at the New World Group, Beckford significantly departs from this body of thought by explicitly attempting to move away from an exclusively West Indian frame of reference, providing a wider framework which could be applicable to other non-Caribbean societies.

Kari Levitt

Unit of analysis: 

"Plantation America", plantations within the Caribbean, Southern United States. Modern plantations in the form of multinational corporations (MNCs) e.g.  mines,  hotels  and  factories.  

Central issue:

What are the mechanisms for perpetuating the underdevelopment of the subsistence sector for the development of the capitalist sector.

Norman Girvan

Policy Recommendations made by the Plantation School

(1) They saw as fundamental to the process  of  change,  the formation  of ideas.

(2) They favoured localisation of decision-making

(3) Regional  integration was  a  main programatic  position.

(4) The  use of land  was  to  be  rationalized by  breaking the stranglehold which  the  MNCs  and  the  mono-crop  had  over this  vital  resource.

(5) Industrial development was  to  be  based  on  the fullest development  of backward  and forward  linkages with agriculture,  manufacturing,  mining  and  tourism.

(6) Banks and financial institutions were to be nationalised.

(7) Major  programme  of social reform was  to be  launched  in the areas of  education,  health,  nutrition,  housing and  other social  amenities.

(8) The policy of accumulation  centred  on  the development  of national production, the capturing  of a greater share of the surplus and  the  elimination of waste.

(9) The  state  was identified as playing the leading role  in directing the  economy  through  fiscal and monetary  policy and  where necessary  by direct participation in production.

References

Beckford, G. L. (2000). Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in Plantation Economies of the Third World. Kingston: University of West Indies Press.

Beckford, G. L., & Levitt, K. (2000). The George Beckford Papers. Kingston: University of the West Indies.

Best, L. (1967). Independent thought and Caribbean freedom. New World Quarterly, 3(4), 13-34.

Girvan, N., & Jefferson, O. (Eds.). (1974). Readings in the Political Economy of the Caribbean. New World Group.