3 - Maintaining control of the state: strategies for regime survival in Guyana and Trinidad

Summary

In Chapter 1 it was proposed that the survival of a third world regime is directly related to its success in meeting three conditions: (i) the need to satisfy or neutralize powerful local and international actors; (ii) the need to demobilize or co-opt the organized opposition; and (iii) the need to retain mass support and to prevent outbidding. In its attempts at meeting these conditions, a regime usually employs a number of strategies. One is the use of “practical ideology.” This entails the formulation of a socio-political program as a means of communicating to politically strategic actors that their interests will be furthered and protected in regime policy. Ideology can also be used in bids to counter the effects of powerful actors. In seeking to overcome socio-political threats, a regime might employ ideology to mobilize segments of the population or to obtain the support and assistance of actors with alternative resources.

A regime also has the resources of the state available for use as patronage. These resources can be employed to develop clientelistic ties with strategic elites, to generate and maintain mass support, and to generate and maintain the support of strategic groups. A regime also has the ability to strengthen and expand the machinery of the state. This provides it with the wherewithal to control political, social, cultural, and economic activity and to ensure the demobilization of those engaged in such activities who may prove politically threatening.