Deliberative democracy and constitutional reform in the Commonwealth Caribbean

Since independence, the governments of the Commonwealth Caribbean, when contemplating major constitutional reform, have sought to encourage their citizens to participate in the reform of their constitution. This has been either indirect, through public consultation by constitution review commissions (CRCs), or direct, by voting in a referendum. This paper examines the role that CRCs have played in the reform process and how this has impacted the various referendums that have taken place in the post-independence era. The examination is conducted through the lens of deliberative constitutionalism, which is concerned not just with the number of citizens participating in the constitutional reform process but also the quality of that participation. The paper thus seeks to answer the question of whether, notwithstanding the efforts of the region’s governments to maximise the number of citizens participating in the constitutional reform process, they have succeeded in creating the conditions that allow deliberative constitutionalism to flourish.