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An introduction: Democracy, culture, and power

"Democracy," "democratization," and "civil society" are terms that have filled the political rhetoric, scholarly conferences, and grant applications of the past decade. "Freedom," meanwhile, has become linked increasingly with the concepts of "open markets" and "free trade." Political freedom, relegated to the arena of nationalism, now sounds rather anachronistic. What is the meaning of democracy and freedom in an age of intensive globalization, in which states control fewer and fewer of the economic and regulatory activities within their borders, and political decision-making becomes further removed from the world's electorates? Why this rhetoric, when there is less democracy within the reach of every state's citizenry, with impoverished nations having less say about decisions that increase their rate of decline and exploit their women, poor, and people of color? Instead of addressing such questions, most academics concerned with culture and power have been debating the social construction and commodification of identities, the mutual constitution of race, gender, and class, the production of cultural authenticity, and the strategic use of essentialism. We have had much less to say about the representations of democracy and the way in which they are marketed, sold, and embodied. What is the relationship between economic and gendered oppression, on the one hand, and the increased celebration of democratic process, on the other? How should those scholars who are committed to social justice respond to local discourses about democracy and celebrations of political freedom? The papers that follow address these questions, taking the experience in Jamaica and the Caribbean as a starting point. In this issue,