Introduction

The main objective was to separate from Curacao, the administrative center of the Netherlands Antilles. Supporters of the 'export-led growth' approach and believers in the newer paradigms of the Latin American dependency theory and Marxist political economy have widely discussed the malfunctioning of democratic-pluralist regimes inherited from the colonial past, and the rise and fall of Marxist or Marxist-oriented regimes in the non-Hispanic Caribbean. In the English, French and Spanish literature of the social sciences and international politics, scholars have given but scant attention to the Dutch Caribbean. Suriname became a Dutch colony in 1667, when the Peace of Breda ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In Part One of the volume the nature of politics and domestic problems are examined and related to the colonial past and to the present Dutch connection. Sedoc-Dahlberg's contribution starts with the interplay between local party and government politics, and with development aid during civilian governments.