Thesis (M.A.)--University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2009. / Open access. Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-187).

The Jamaican don is a non-state actor who wields considerable power and control inside that nation's garrison communities. A don is a male figure, usually from the community in which he plays a leadership role. Garrisons in Jamaica have often emerged as neighborhoods that are don-ruled shadow versions of the official State. These are poor inner city communities characterized by homogeneous and, in some cases, over-voting patterns for one of Jamaica's two major political parties: the Peoples National Party (PNP) or the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP). This dissertation explores the major roles dons played in Jamaican garrisons. It focused on one community in the downtown metro area of one of the nation's cities. Additionally, it investigated the factors that account for the evolution of such roles performed by dons from the 1960s to the present. I used governance theories and the concept of embeddedness as an analytic framework to interpret the power and authority dons have in garrisons. Dons, as it turned out, perform four central roles in garrisons: security/protection, social welfare, partisan mobilization and law, order and conflict resolution via "jungle justice" measures. Different types of dons perform alternate mixes of these roles. The case study described here led me to develop a taxonomy of these informal community leaders by separating them into Mega, Area and Street Dons. I argue overall that dons are embedded governing authorities in Jamaican garrisons based on the socio-economic and political roles they carry out. By examining the responsibilities of dons in Jamaica, this analysis contributes to the literature on the activities of non-state criminal actors and their forms of influence on governance processes. The study suggests that it may now be appropriate to re-think the nature of governance and the actors we broadly assume are legitimate holders of power and authority in developing nation contexts. / Ph. D.

The evolution and impact of journalism in the developing world remains largely under-explored, especially in the Caribbean. This case study explores the role of the 21st century daily newspaper in Jamaica, during a period where the country endured its first widespread national crisis in almost three decades. This thesis deconstructs the coverage of Jamaica’s two daily newspapers and the role of civil society during the nine months prior to the extradition of alleged transnational drug dealer Christopher Coke to the United States. The extradition coverage of Coke, whom the American government deemed, one of the most wanted men in the world, highlighted growing concerns about the island’s diplomacy and its place in the global environment. It gave the news media an opportunity to focus on incidences of corruption, party-garrison clientelistic relationships and facilitate debates about good governance and a new vision for the island. In the aftermath of the Coke extradition, there have been questions about influence and who played what roles in the resolution of the crisis. This thesis considers the influence of the media and of wider civil society activism, specifically the way the newspapers and civic organizations shaped the extradition, opened a space for dialogue and created a shift in the nature of media/government relations on the island. An in-depth content analysis of the newspaper coverage leading up to the extradition forms the empirical basis for study. This is supplemented by interviews with journalists, academics and civic agents whose voices helped shape the Coke debate in the newspapers. This crisis provided a unique opportunity to assess the news agenda on the island along with the perspectives of community voices as they engaged to influence a peaceful resolution. The newspaper analysis of the extradition highlighted the political and social complexity of the island, in particular, the rampant political corruption, extreme social inequality, commonplace civil disobedience and criminality. The extradition revealed that there were obstacles to the cohesion of civil society groups in Jamaica. They were hampered by class and income disparities, political allegiances and questions of faith. These underlying concepts, along with newsroom culture, press-politics relationships, self-censorship, newspaper patronage, education, economic structures, and cultural identity can all be understood not by their individual meanings but as ways in which power is shaping the socio-political landscape of the island. The newspaper coverage of the extradition battle also exposed flaws in the island’s political and social fabric, this elevated government’s predicament from a routine extradition warrant to an armed conflict. This thesis reinforces the role of daily newspapers in ensuring governmental transparency and providing a space that facilitates differing views which ultimately allows democracy to work. The findings from the thesis contribute to an understanding of journalism outside of the context of the United States/ United Kingdom. It showed that in the Caribbean and especially Jamaica special considerations must be made for how socio-cultural factors impact newspaper journalism.

The current study is concerned with the role that transnational criminal organizations play in the ability of a small country, such as Jamaica, to govern itself effectively. Jamaica is identified as a major producer and distributor of cannabis, since the 1970s, and today plays an active role in other established illicit markets for cocaine and illegal weapons. Despite a long-term and continued involvement in U.S. funded drug trafficking and counterdrug programs, and the establishment of several anti-crime organizations within the country, Jamaica’s successes have been marginal. The current study attempts to examine first, how criminal groups located within the garrisons of Kingston have managed to strengthen their involvement in illegal activities and to evade the state. Second, it explores how these criminal groups have successfully offset the Jamaican state’s monopoly on power within garrison communities. Through a qualitative research design, I utilized a wide range of research methods- observation, open-ended interviews, focus groups, document data, audio-visual data, and text and image analysis- in order to identify the mechanisms by which non-state actors have been able to alter their power relation with the state. The study explores the relationship between the Jamaican state and criminal groups residing within garrisons specifically located in the Kingston Metropolitan Area. The study concludes that the interactions between garrisons and the Jamaican state have become increasingly more transnational over time. Using Nye and Keohane’s (1971) understanding of transnational relations in an analysis of the garrison, the dissertation asserts that network based criminal groupings residing within garrisons are directly shaping the behavior and policy goals of the Jamaican state by forming coalitions and interactions across state boundaries. These coalitions and interactions involve a wide cross section of non-state actors both criminal and legal, as well as corruptible elements of government. Network based criminal groupings located with Jamaica’s garrisons are increasingly competent in evading the law and in carrying out criminal activity. They do so by employing more fluid organizational and power structures, assuming a more influential role in the distribution and use of violence, and by taking advantage of the liberalization and privatization of the Jamaican economy.