Class, Race and Political Behaviour in Urban Jamaica

Stone, Carl, Class, Race and Political Behaviour in Urban Jamaica, Mona, Jamaica: Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of the West Indies, 1973.

From Martin Henry (contributor to the June 21, 2009 edition of the Gleaner):

Stone sensibly classified classes in the Jamaican political economy by distinctions of both income and non-material status. In 'Class, State, and Democracy in Jamaica' and an earlier paper on 'Class, Race, and Political Behaviour in Urban Jamaica', he identified four broad socio-economic categories in Jamaican social structure:

1. An upper class of capitalists (large-scale business owners and planters).

2. An upper-middle class, made up of professionals, owners of medium-size businesses, college-level educators, corporate managers, senior bureaucrats in the public sector, and leaders of voluntary associations.

3. A lower-middle class, consisting of small-scale business owners, primary and secondary-school teachers, white-collar workers (in private business, civil administration, and parastatal organisations), skilled workers, and owners of medium-size farms.

4. A lower class of small peasants, agricultural workers, labourers (unskilled and semi-skilled), and the substantial number of rural and urban unemployed (Stone, 1973).

Stone's work delineates a complicated link between class and party loyalty.

Review

See also JSTOR and Retrospective in Commemoration of Carl Stone: Jamaican Pioneer of Political Culture.