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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Low level of trust among Jamaicans is hindrance to development</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Claude Robinson
Sunday, February 04, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>We see it in the news almost everyday: Inter-personal disputes that lead to violent, often fatal consequences; citizen and police dispute each other about the facts of a controversial shooting; jungle justice is a preferred choice over the judiciary in too many cases.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=90 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Claude Robinson</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>To a considerable extent, these are instances of a lack of trust between each other and between citizens and national leaders and institutions.
Now, a group of researchers from the University of the West Indies (UWI) have measured the lack of trust and the data looks frightening, especially because of the policy challenges that lie beneath the raw numbers.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The research data show that a very high 83.5 per cent of Jamaicans believe most people cannot be trusted to keep their promise and an even higher 84.8 per cent believe the government cannot be trusted to keep their promise. We neither trust each other nor our government.
These are just two of many intriguing findings from a national survey of leadership and governance issues conducted July-August 2006 and presented at a function on the Mona Campus Wednesday night by the lead researcher, Dr Lawrence A Powell, senior lecturer in the Department of Government.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The findings are contained in a small, reader-friendly volume, Probing Jamaica's Political Culture, released Wednesday to coincide with the formal launch of the newly-established Centre for Leadership and Governance at UWI, Mona.
The centre is a joint project of the Department of Government and the Mona School of Business.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In addition to periodic research, the centre will also be engaged in leadership and governance training for the new generation of parliamentarians and business leaders required for managing the rapid process of transformation and change in the evolving Jamaican society.
The inaugural research project examined such issues as citizen support for basic democratic norms; perceptions of personal as well as national well-being; individual versus government responsibility for solving problems; perceptions of crime, corruption and unequal treatment; participation in political and civil society matters.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In the mere 45 years since Independence, the country has clearly made some progress in the development of democratic institutions and process.
In my view, free and fair elections and the orderly transfer of power from one political party to another, the rule of law; and a free press are some of the areas in which there has been general agreement that progress has been made.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=120 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>HALL. promised that a focus of his office would be building social capital </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>What is less clear is whether we are making sufficient progress towards embedding what Powell and his colleagues, Paul Bourne and Dr Lloyd Waller, called a "democratic political culture", which is essential for "stability and success" i
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Claude Robinson
Sunday, February 04, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>We see it in the news almost everyday: Inter-personal disputes that lead to violent, often fatal consequences; citizen and police dispute each other about the facts of a controversial shooting; jungle justice is a preferred choice over the judiciary in too many cases.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=90 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Claude Robinson</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>To a considerable extent, these are instances of a lack of trust between each other and between citizens and national leaders and institutions.Now, a group of researchers from the University of the West Indies (UWI) have measured the lack of trust and the data looks frightening, especially because of the policy challenges that lie beneath the raw numbers.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The research data show that a very high 83.5 per cent of Jamaicans believe most people cannot be trusted to keep their promise and an even higher 84.8 per cent believe the government cannot be trusted to keep their promise. We neither trust each other nor our government.
These are just two of many intriguing findings from a national survey of leadership and governance issues conducted July-August 2006 and presented at a function on the Mona Campus Wednesday night by the lead researcher, Dr Lawrence A Powell, senior lecturer in the Department of Government.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The findings are contained in a small, reader-friendly volume, Probing Jamaica's Political Culture, released Wednesday to coincide with the formal launch of the newly-established Centre for Leadership and Governance at UWI, Mona.
The centre is a joint project of the Department of Government and the Mona School of Business.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In addition to periodic research, the centre will also be engaged in leadership and governance training for the new generation of parliamentarians and business leaders required for managing the rapid process of transformation and change in the evolving Jamaican society.
The inaugural research project examined such issues as citizen support for basic democratic norms; perceptions of personal as well as national well-being; individual versus government responsibility for solving problems; perceptions of crime, corruption and unequal treatment; participation in political and civil society matters.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In the mere 45 years since Independence, the country has clearly made some progress in the development of democratic institutions and process.
In my view, free and fair elections and the orderly transfer of power from one political party to another, the rule of law; and a free press are some of the areas in which there has been general agreement that progress has been made.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=120 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>HALL. promised that a focus of his office would be building social capital </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>What is less clear is whether we are making sufficient progress towards embedding what Powell and his colleagues, Paul Bourne and Dr Lloyd Waller, called a "democratic political culture", which is essential for "stability and success" i