ABSTRACT
The stabilisation of composite societies lies at the very heart of the debate between the advocates of the rival theories of pluralism and stratification. M.G. Smith argues that the monopolization of political power by a social and cultural minority and the institutionalised inequalities characteristic of the plural society render it inherently unstable. In Guyana after slavery, white minority dominance was effected by their monopoly of political power which enabled them to employ the state apparatus to institutionalize social and political inequalities, and thereby to subjugate the subordinate majority. In post-emancipation Guyana, it was the plantation economic system which provided the common economic factor. The techniques of the clergy of the state churches and of the Wesleyan Methodist missionaries were calculated to bolster the stability of the established socio-political order by firstly, inculcating in the ex-slaves a sense of deference to white authority and, secondly, fostering acceptance of their subordinate position in society.
