Governance, Politics and Corruption: An Inquiry on Electoral Corruption in Jamaica

Abstract: This thesis will study the notions of governance and corruption and thereby apply it to the case of Jamaica in order to understand how political corruption weakens the country´s governmental legitimacy and principles of democracy. Seeing that corruption is a symbol for the disintegration of state power, it is argued that corruption distorts development of political, social and economic institutions. In the view of such circumstances, it has been argued that Jamaica provides great surroundings for corruption as its weak legal frameworks and bureaucratic and inadequate public sector allows public funds and investments to be redirected into the hands of the powerful elite. As such, this thesis includes a qualitative case study on the prevalence of corruption in Jamaica by putting emphasis on electoral corruption. Focus is also put on the public´s attitudes and trust towards, and perception of, the country´s government and politicians. The empirical data has been collected through ten semi-structured interviews which were carried out in the field (Kingston, Jamaica). The results from the processed primary and secondary sources suggest that there is a high prevalence of political corruption, in particularly electoral fraud, as the two main political parties in Jamaica have a history of vote-buying and political tribalism. As a result, the public´s distrust towards the government and the politicians has increased, while the voting participation among the registered citizens has declined.