I was going to write this week about whether the Bank of Guyana should take up the role of the Guyana Gold Board by purchasing gold from local miners. However, after reading Dr Henry Jeffrey’s inspirational column “Jubilee celebration or African fest?” I am motivated to write about power sharing in Guyana and summarize my core position on this topic.
Let us start off by outlining the ethnic logjam in which the country finds itself. The two main ethnic masses – except a relatively small percentage of independent voters – vote for their respective ethnic leaders. The party which wins the election will draw supporters from its ethnic group to form core government positions. The losing group is marginalized. Politicians, past and present, have labelled this marginalization as “ethnic cleansing” when it is clearly not so. The marginalization of the losing group is rooted in pro-ethnic voting, intra-group social networks and the dependency on political patronage for upward career mobility.
Standard economic analyses can be used to illuminate the nature and consequence of pro-ethnic voting and intra-group social networks. The result reminds me of a pernicious Nash equilibrium that comes about because the two main ethnic masses expect to be rewarded with patronage and as
