The Cayman Islands use some of the increasingly familiar methods of resolving administratively the problems of smallness. The country's development and administrative performance depend on human resources which need to be planned in order to reduce dependence on outsiders, especially among the middle ranks of technical and professional staff. Education and training for the public service in the Cayman Islands is inadequate. Control of the administration is weak, especially among the independent boards and commissions, and there is a need for appeal procedures when the principles of natural justice have been breached. Political manipultion in personnel matters adversely affects performance, and there is a need for an effective civil service association to deal with other abuses. The problems of public administration are solved by scaling down the role of government in favour of private enterprise and against the provision of social welfare.
Voluntary organizations in Bangladesh: a profile describes the emergence and development of voluntary groups in Bangladesh which organize people in the undertaking of development programmes, and the different forms they have taken. It also reviews their financial, staffing and functional strengths and weaknesses.
In an analysis of the administration of government in the British Virgin Islands the Deputy Governor's use of team or collective management techniques stands out as an important factor in the success of the Islands in coping with problems of small scale and of sparse resources. This method of reaching general decisions may be rooted in the country's African heritage, which was little touched by the brief attempt of English planters to develop a colony in the Islands. In any event, this heritage may be reinforceable as a bulwark against Americanization.
The Dutch Windward Islands are examined to see if they throw any light on the problems experienced when very small island communities try to come together to form a larger political unit. The Constitution of 1954, though federal in intent, was unitary in practice, with the main island, Curacao treating the others like municipalities. However the island authorities are capable of asserting themselves against the centre. They control implementation, raise revenue and receive local political support. Because of the small size of the populations and civil services involved, island and federal officials collaborate harmoniously. Leading individuals are important for development, notably St Maarten's Claude Wathey. New initiatives also require effective negotiations to deal with off‐shore tourist organizations. However, there is little significant industry beyond tourism. In 1988 the three Dutch Windward Islands agreed to co‐operate with each other. Decentralization within the largest island could help this cooperation as could a regional association along the lines of the South Pacific Forum.
The British constitutional and political traditions of the Crown Colonies of Montserrat and Anguilla have been modified by their unique histories, particularly in a common commitment to team management. Some senior public servants in Montserrat are reluctant to acknowledge the virtues of a team approach, but their more junior colleagues have been given training in team techniques which has laid a firm foundation for team work and collective management. Professional effectiveness and job satisfaction have increased. The principles of team management are reciprocity, disposition for agreement, fairness, honesty, mutual trust and confidentiality. However the reluctant leadership of some Permanent Secretaries produces frustration and problems of morale. The Permanent Secretary level is the last to be impregnated with the team administration philosophy in Anguilla, too. But team management is recognized as necessary for building consensus and for the smooth running of a small public service. Subordinates employing team techniques have been assessed by their superiors as more successful in staff‐management relations, policymaking and productivity than traditional, hierarchical managers. Team techniques have been carried over into a number of small businesses on the island. This phenomenon is unique among the United Kingdom's West Indian colonies. The problems of team management include time and accountability.
Divided between France and Holland since 1648, the small island community of St Martin has grown and prospered in recent decades largely because of tourism. France which incorporates its part, Saint Martin, as a municipality in the Department of Guadeloupe has been generous with public funds and tax concessions to those who invest in the dependency. The Kingdom of the Netherlands, the governments of its constituent parts (Holland and the Netherlands Antilles), has been more generous with authority than with money. So Dutch Sint Maarten has enjoyed much greater political and administrative autonomy than its northern neighbour, but it has to depend on investment from private interests, American and European. Indeed, it bas lacked sufficient public capital even for infrastructure and social services, including education. The governments of both sides have neglected joint planning and other coordinated efforts to develop the island. The Dutch side has been committed to laissez-faire private enterprise and so personnel development in the public service has been minimal. This has disposed the government of the French side to limit joint ventures with the Dutch government. The population is large enough and the revenues are high enough to provide adequate numbers of public officials, but tourism has attracted, in the 1970s and ~O S , many of the more able and ambitious. These considerations set the two sides of St Martin apart from other West Indian micro-states, most ofwhich have not experienced as much success in developing and maintaining tourism. St Martin is unique in another way. It is different from other English-speaking islands because of its French and Dutch institutions. It is quite different from other French and Dutch islands (Saba and St Eustatius excepted) because of the English language and other cultural influences.Professor Kersell is in the
As in the preceding articles on Bermuda and the Cayman Islands (Kersell, 1985 and 1987), our present purpose is simply to describe how a Commonwealth microstate, the Turks and Caicos Islands, has adapted the principles of the Westminster‐Whitehall model to its particular conditions. It is even smaller than Bermuda or Cayman, and far less prosperous. Thus it has found it necessary to further scale down both jobs (to create employment) and services (to economize). To accomplish the latter, it must also omit altogether a number of government activities. The Turks and Caicos Islands are the least developed as compared to Bermuda, Cayman, or even the British Virgin Islands. It is interesting that they alone have not only tried to conserve their traditional economic base in fisheries, but have also launched vigorously into mariculture on several fronts. Later than Bermuda and Cayman, they have turned to tourism and offshore finance in order to develop economically. The base for such development, as elsewhere, is their people–a resource threatened more seriously than elsewhere by the North American appetite for illicit drugs.
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