The transition to mass parties and ideological politics : the Jamaican experience since 1972

In: Comparative political studies: CPS, Band 19, Heft 4, S. 443-483

Abstract

People's National Party in Jamaica under Michael Manley in the 1970s moved sharply to the left and maintained or increased its electoral base. One element of the political strategy of Democratic Socialism of the PNP was the organizational strengthening of the party and the adoption of a stronger ideological profile. This article discusses the importance as well as the limitations of the process of party transformation. On the basis of two surveys of the Jamaican elite, carried out in 1974 and in 1982, it documents the dramatic effect of this process on the ideological alignments in the Jamaican elite