Civil Society and Creole Society: Caribbean Socio-cultural Division and Its Development Implications

Though the instrumental nature of civil society in developing countries cannot be overemphasised, ideologically, civil society serves as the non-statal conduit through which neoliberal ideology expresses and expands itself globally. As such, civil society usually comes up against the creole sections of the societies in developing countries. The dominance of civil society leads to the coloniality of knowledge, power and being leading to a ‘preference’ for values, mores and ways of doing and knowing associated with the developed West. These have implications for all aspects of society. This chapter revisits the debate on the socio-cultural distinction between civil and creole societies with the aim of accounting for the continual marginalisation and domination of creole society by civil society and the foreclosing of the creole imaginary. The chapter also discusses the implications of this dominance for the nature and prevalence of social values in the society, the transformation of the economic structure and economic development thinking and the nature of politics that prevail in these societies.