Caribbean Islands » Politics

The politics of the Caribbean are diverse for such a relatively small area. These systems can be related to their colonial history. The major political system is democracy, with many different party systems within many of the countries. Party systems are a variety of political parties combined together. 

These systems can be divided into a one party system, multi party systems and two party systems. The one party system can be found in Cuba. It is a revolutionary socialist democracy adopted from communism. Other parties do exist in this environment but are viewed as illegal. Although the word democracy is in the name of the party system, it is by far not democratic. Cuba suggests that democracy is about power and how many have access to it, whereas they believe their system is about how many people have access to basic goods. 

In Trinidad and Tobago, the People's National Movement remained in power from 1956 to 1986. In Antigua, the Antigua Labour Party has remained dominant for the majority of the time since 1951. Grenadas dominant party was the Grenada United Labour Party in from 1951 until 1979 when it was overthrown in a Marxist coup d'etat led by Maurice Bishop.  

Several of the islands in the Caribbean remain under the control of colonial powers. The French islands are departements of France and elect representatives to the French National Assembly. The remaining British have elected governments, as do the Dutch West Indies and the American possessions. The Caribbean is a diverse political melting pot, mainly influenced by the variety of colonial history.