The People’s Progressive Party’s formal abandonment of Marxism-Leninism closed one chapter in Guyana’s political history but opened another. That decision is less significant for what it rejects than for the question it now poses: if not Marxism-Leninism, then what? The answer cannot simply be “neoliberalism”.
The collapse of the Soviet model worldwide – and Burnham’s cooperative socialist one here – settled the argument over whether the state should own the “commanding heights of the economy”. Experience has shown that centrally planned economies struggle to innovate, allocate capital efficiently, or satisfy the aspirations of increasingly educated populations. Guyana, enriched by unprecedented oil revenues and integrating into the global economy, has no need to revisit that experiment.
Yet the opposite extreme deserves no less scrutiny. For four decades, neoliberalism – imposed here in 1989 through IMF “conditionalities” – has championed deregulation, privatization, reduced taxation, labour market flexibility and the supremacy of markets. It has undoubtedly generated wealth. But it has also concentrated wealth. Across much of the developed world, productivity has risen while wage growth has stagnated. Public infrastructure has often deteriorated while private fortunes have multiplied. Economic growth has not automatically translated into broad-based prosperity.
Fortunately, the government seems determined not to import those contradictions. Our country’s greatest advantage is that it begins this new phase with extraordinary fiscal capacity. Oil revenues provide a rare opportunity to shape markets rather than merely react to them. The challenge is therefore not choosing between the state and the market. It is designing a partnership in which each performs the functions it performs best.
Markets remain unmatched in rewarding initiative, encouraging entrepreneurship and allocating resources efficiently. Private investment and entrepreneurship must continue to drive innovation, create employment and expand exports. Guyana’s future depends upon entrepreneurs operating in a regulatory environment that is transparent, competitive and free from unnecessary bureaucracy.
But governments possess strengths that markets do not. Only governments can ensure universal education, healthcare, public security, environmental stewardship and modern infrastructure. Only governments can correct regional imbalances that markets often ignore. Only governments can guarantee that every child—whether born in Georgetown, Lethem, Port Kaituma or Mabaruma—begins life with genuine opportunity rather than inherited disadvantage. This is not socialism. It is intelligent capitalism.
A modern developmental state does not seek to replace private enterprise. It seeks to cultivate it. Singapore, South Korea and, increasingly, several Gulf states demonstrate that governments can actively guide development while preserving vibrant private sectors. Strategic investments in ports, digital infrastructure, technical education, research, renewable energy and industrial parks can crowd in private investment rather than crowd it out.
Guyana is embracing what economists increasingly describe as “inclusive capitalism.” Workers are not merely receiving wages; they are being given opportunities to accumulate assets – especially housing. The government is creating accessible capital markets to allow ordinary Guyanese to participate directly in wealth creation. They are using oil revenues not simply to spend but to invest. Every dollar directed toward education, vocational training, scientific research, digital connectivity and resilient infrastructure expands the productive capacity of future generations. While cash-grant fueled consumption satisfies today’s voters, investment enriches tomorrow’s citizens.
This vision is entirely consistent with the PPP’s historic commitment to working people. Being pro-worker in the twenty-first century need not mean opposing business. Workers need profitable businesses because profitable businesses create employment. Businesses need educated, healthy and secure workers because productivity depends upon human capital.
The ideological labels of the twentieth century have become increasingly obsolete. The practical questions of the twenty-first are different. How can artificial intelligence complement rather than replace workers? How can oil wealth finance a diversified economy? How can rapid growth avoid producing entrenched inequality? How can entrepreneurship flourish while ensuring that opportunity remains genuinely open to all? These are not Marxist questions or neoliberal questions. They are Guyanese questions.
Our circumstances are unique: a small, resource-rich, multi-ethnic democracy with extraordinary revenues and extraordinary expectations. We can therefore afford to craft our own model—one that welcomes markets without worshipping them, values enterprise without excusing excess, and recognizes that economic growth is meaningful only when its benefits are widely shared, especially among our several ethnic groups.
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