In 2011, Jamaica had a population estimated at around 2.7 million people. Its economy was largely reliant on exports of bauxite, alumina and tourism as well as remittances from Jamaicans living abroad. Foreign relations in 2011 were marked by strong ties to the United States, European Union, Canada and other countries throughout the world. Politically, the country was a parliamentary democracy ruled by Prime Minister Andrew Holness since 2007. The prime minister was assisted by his cabinet and the Parliament which is composed of two chambers; the House of Representatives (Kamra Reprezantan) and the Senate (Senat). In 2011, Jamaica held its general election in December that year and re-elected Prime Minister Andrew Holness with 42 out of 63 seats in the House of Representatives. See mathgeneral for Jamaica in the year of 2017.
Yearbook 2011
Jamaica. According to Countryaah official site, Prime Minister Bruce Golding stepped down unexpectedly this fall, citing criticism of his way of handling the extradition of a famous drug king to the United States just over a year earlier. Golding has long opposed the extradition of Christopher “Dudus” Coke, who was considered to have close contacts with high-ranking politicians. Visit ABBREVIATIONFINDER for the acronym of JAM that stands for the country of Jamaica.
In October, the ruling right-wing party JLP (Jamaica Labor Party) appointed Education Minister Andrew Holness as new party leader and prime minister. Holness promised to work to cut the ties that often exist between politicians and criminals.
Efforts to fight gang crime had already led to a decrease in the murder rate, which has long been one of the highest in the world. The decrease was around 40% compared to the previous year. But Holness did not last long as head of government. He announced a new election held at the end of December and resulted in a big victory for the Social Democratic PNP (People’s National Party). The party got 41 out of 63 seats and the road was thus ready for leader Portia Simpson Miller to return as prime minister, a post she left in 2007.
HISTORY
Discovered in 1494 by C. Colombo, who baptized it Santiago, the island remained a marginal possession in the Spanish empire; the few settlers devoted themselves above all to breeding. The English conquest of 1655, followed for some years by the use of the Jamaica as a basis for the racing war against Spain, paved the way for the development of a plantation (sugar cane) economy based on the massive importation of slaves Africans. Until the early nineteenth century, an endemic guerrilla warfare was conducted against the English by groups of runaway slaves (the so-called maroons) took refuge in the forests and inaccessible regions of the interior. When (1807) the trade in slaves was abolished, the latter (over 300,000) constituted the great majority of the population; their subsequent emancipation (1834-38) was followed by the emigration of large numbers of blacks to the hilly areas of the interior, and by a profound crisis in the plantation economy. The social repercussions of the depression culminated in the revolt of 1865 in the Morant region, which was bloody suppressed by Governor E. Eyre. After 1866, when Jamaica was declared a colony of the Crown, a phase of economic expansion began, stimulated above all by the development of the banana crop, which became the main export product.
The international crisis of the 1930s had repercussions on the island, causing widespread social unrest and a growth in the demands for independence; around the two charismatic leaders, A. Bustamante and N. Manley, the two poles that would subsequently characterize the country’s political system were formed: the Jamaica labor party (JLP) and the People’s national party (PNP), each with its own central trade union. The growing autonomy granted starting from 1944 culminated, after the brief experience of the Federation of the Indies Westerners (1958-62), in achieving independence, within the Commonwealth, on 6 August 1962. Bustamante, who had won the 1962 elections, became prime minister. The JLP remained at the helm of the country until 1972, when the PNP’s electoral victory led to the leadership of the government M. Manley (son of Norman, who died in 1969), who tried to promote a policy of social reform and reduction of economic dependence. from the USA, also intensifying relations with Cuba. His government was reconfirmed in 1976, but in 1980 the JLP returned to power, which impressed a pro-US change in foreign policy (breaking of diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1981, participation in the invasion of Grenada in 1983), launched a program of privatizations and incentives for foreign investments and agreed drastic cuts in public spending and domestic consumption with international creditors. In the 1980s the world crisis hit the Jamaican economy hard, causing a drop in exports of bauxite and alumina and other traditional products; the further worsening of the social situation continued to fuel phenomena of violence and widespread crime, also connected with the growth of drug trafficking.
From 1989 the PNP returned to the leadership of the government, first with Manley and from 1992 with PJ Patterson, who implemented, on the whole, a moderate policy; the economic conditions of the country led to austerity measures agreed with the International Monetary Fund, while the need to revive foreign investments and obtain a more favorable attitude on the part of international creditors made Washington’s support even more decisive, even if this did not had prevented, in 1990, the resumption of diplomatic relations with Cuba.
Despite the development of the tourism sector, in the following years the high rate of inflation and unemployment, the economic difficulties and the dramatic deterioration in living conditions have fueled social tensions, which have resulted on several occasions in street clashes. The approval in 2004 of special legislation on crime and drug trafficking did not improve the situation of public order and security, which remained critical, constituting a serious threat to tourism. In 2006 PJ Patterson handed over the leadership of the party and the government to P. Simpson Miller, the first woman to hold such posts in the history of the country, but in 2007 the PNP was beaten in the elections by Labor and became Prime Minister B. Golding. Resigned, in October 2011 he was replaced by A. Holness, former Minister of Education, who announced a turning point in national politics, indicating the main objectives of his mandate in the fight against crime and corruption, but in the general elections of December of the same year there was a new affirmation of the PNP, which obtained 41 of the 63 parliamentary seats thanks to which in January 2012 Simpson Miller took up the position of premier again. A new alternation in power was sanctioned by the consultations held in February 2016, which recorded a narrow victory of the JLP, which won 33 of the 63 seats and 47% of the votes by defeating the PNP of Prime Minister Simpson Miller, which is new successor Holness, reconfirmed in office following the early consultations of September 2020.