ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the Caribbean" to be the islands plus mainland territories that were part of the British, Dutch, and French colonial empires. Like all concepts or heuristic devices in the social sciences, the concept of modern-conservative societies is used to explain complex social structures and social processes. The chapter describes the concept of Caribbean social structure explains the political manifestations of that social structure. In the Caribbean, the continuities and similarities result from a blending of modern and conservative features in the composition of major institutions as well as in social and behavioral dynamics. Understanding the nature of political change in these societies, then, requires an analysis of not only the immediate political happenings in the area but also what might be called the structural or enduring aspects of Caribbean political dynamics. The decline of the agricultural sector is a fundamental fact of Caribbean political economy.
