How do political leaders develop the capacity to sustain leadership in the Eastern Caribbean? In The Eastern Caribbean Political Power Playbook, I give particular weight to learning from experience and applying that learning to the demands of political life.
Learning from the work of leadership
Political experience provides encounters with voters, colleagues, public institutions, and difficult decisions. The question is what a leader learns from those encounters and how that learning changes subsequent behavior.
In Lesson Ten, “Quit While You Are Ahead,” pages 225–228, I examine three connected capabilities: self-directing learning to lead from experience on the job, directing individual leadership development, and directing national development.
The book treats these capabilities as important to Skerrit’s leadership longevity. Formal qualifications alone do not establish a politician’s ability to recognize the expectations of the political community and respond effectively to them.
Understanding the people being led
Within the Eastern Caribbean Model examined in the book, learning requires attention to the working-class political community and its expectations. Close contact provides information that leaders must interpret and use.
Lesson One’s account of the “politics of touch,” on page 18, illustrates the depth of that contact. Political relationships extend into major life events, practical assistance, and sustained interaction in constituents’ homes and communities.
Experience must become capability
My argument gives learning a central role in explaining why leaders differ in their capacity to deliver the model. The book examines Skerrit’s development and contrasts his capabilities with those of political opponents. These are interpretations developed through the book’s account, rather than a claim that a qualification or one election result can settle the question of leadership ability.
For readers, the useful inquiry is how experience becomes knowledge that informs action. What does a leader recognize about the political community? How does that understanding develop? How is it applied in decisions and relationships?
Place learning within the wider explanation
The person operates within a job, an election system, and a jurisdiction. Learning is therefore part of the larger explanation of longevity developed in the book.
Read What Explains Political Leadership Longevity in the Eastern Caribbean? for that framework, or The Politics of Proximity for the leader–voter relationship.
