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Contact:
Claudia Monlouis
Friday, January 30, 2004 - One of the Caribbean’s great thinkers and
former Director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic
Studies, of the St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies
Professor Selwyn Ryan, says Sir Arthur Lewis envisioned a political system in
which the term “winners” and “losers” were removed from the political dictionary
and replaced by a language of mutual toleration and compromise. He added that in
his book “Politics in West Africa” Sir Arthur discussed the importance of a
politics of coalition and negotiation.
“Instead of a political system in which key decisions are made by some prime
ministers or presidents with or without the knowledge and support of their
cabinets, he preferred a politics of shifting coalitions such as obtains in the
United States of America where congressional representatives and senators
support policies and interests, as opposed to parties.”
He added that another of Sir Arthur’s book of essays which has continuing
validity is entitled “The Agony of the Eight in which he attempts to make a link
between size and political abuse and also to establish a link between federation
and good governance in small Caribbean territories.
Professor Ryan was at the time delivering a lecture on the topic “Culture and
Politics: Sir Arthur Lewis and the West Minster Inheritance” during the Nobel
Laureate Week of activities. The focus of the lecture was to celebrate Sir
Arthur Lewis’ contribution to knowledge.
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