NEOLIBERALISM, GLOBALIZATION, INCOME INEQUALITY, POVERTY AND RESISTANCE

A Jamaican scholar’s debut work analyzes the impact of neoliberalism on recent Jamaican history.

McKenzie, who was born and raised in Jamaica and is currently a doctoral student at Georgetown University, begins this work with an exceptionally useful primer on the history of his native country from the arrival of Christopher Columbus to later British imperialism, the World War II era, and decolonization. Jamaica, he says, is a capitalist nation “centered on a culture of servitude where tourism, hospitality, sports, and music are the main sources of income,” and the blame for its currently stagnant economy, he asserts, lies squarely with neoliberal policies, which focus on free market capitalism and deregulation—both inside the nation’s bureaucracy and its nominal Western allies’. Early chapters highlight how “neoliberal technocrats” forged a “Washington Consensus” inside Jamaica’s government that perpetuated, and even exacerbated, poverty for more than half a century. The book’s second half pays particular attention to how international events since the 1980s—from the elections of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher to the global ascendance of the Black Lives Matter movement—intersected with Jamaica’s economic and social history. The author gives the ideas of Pan-African thinkers, including Frantz Fanon, ample attention and analysis, as well as those of Black Nationalists, such as Jamaican Marcus Garvey, whom the author critiques for his “Fascist ideological roots” and embrace of “Western-style capitalism.” This well-researched, interdisciplinary volume makes its points in passionate and learned prose, and McKenzie shows an expert command of relevant scholarship by historians, economists, and social theorists. The tour de force narrative unfortunately wanes in its final chapter, which examines solutions to neoliberalism using references to the 2002 film Dirty Pretty Things—an anticlimactic ending that doesn’t meet the high bar set by the previous 10 chapters. Nonetheless, this book as a whole provides important commentary and critical context on its subject.

An erudite analysis of Jamaica’s economic history.