Michael Manley and Jamaican Democracy, 1972-1980

This book examines the democratic ideas of Michael Manley, Jamaican prime minister from 1972 to 1980, and again from 1989 to 1992, during his government in the 1970s. Manley wrote three books during or about that period, The Politics of Change, A Voice at the Workplace, and Jamaica: Struggle in the Periphery. The first two laid out his policy ideas regarding egalitarian democratic change and economic democracy, and the third reprised those ideas and assessed their implementation and the obstacles they faced during the eight and a half years Manley served as prime minister. While Manley was seen as a socialist firebrand, a close examination of his ideas reveals a democratic nationalist whose motivation was love of country and a desire to promote national self-confidence and egalitarianism within the framework of liberal democracy and a reformed capitalism.