What went wrong? : the Nicaraguan Revolution : a Marxist analysis / by Dan La Botz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

La Botz, Dan, author.

Series:

Historical materialism book series ; Volume 127.

Historical Materialism Book Series, 1570-1522 ; Volume 127

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Counterrevolutions--Nicaragua.

Nicaragua--History--Revolution, 1979.

Nicaragua--Politics and government--1990-.

Nicaragua--Politics and government--20th century.

Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (429 p.)

Place of Publication:

Leiden, Netherlands : Brill, 2016.

Summary:

This volume is a valuable re-assessment of the Nicaraguan Revolution by a Marxist historian of Latin American political history. It shows that the FSLN (‘the Sandinistas’), with politics principally shaped by Soviet and Cuban Communism, never had a commitment to genuine democracy either within the revolutionary movement or within society at large; that the FSLN’s lack of commitment to democracy was a key factor in the way that revolution was betrayed from the 1970s to the 1990s; and that the FSLN’s lack of rank-and-file democracy left all decision-making to the National Directorate and ultimately placed that power in the hands of Daniel Ortega. Pursuing his narrative into the present, La Botz shows that, once their would-be bureaucratic ruling class project was defeated, Ortega and the FSLN leadership turned to an alliance with the capitalist class.

Contents:

Front Matter

What Happened to the Nicaraguan Revolution?

Nicaragua: A Nation but Not a State (from the Beginning to 1893)

The Struggle to Construct a Sovereign State: Zelaya and Sandino (1893–1932)

The Somoza Dynastic Dictatorship (1936–75)

The Founding of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (1962–78)

The Sandinista Revolution (1975–79)

The Sandinistas in Power (1979–84)

The Sandinistas and the Contra War (1985–90)

Violeta Chamorro: A New Ruling Class, a New State, a New Economy (1990–96)

Alemán and Bolaños: Corruption in Power (1996–2006)

The Ortega Government (2006–)

Results and Prospects

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

90-04-29131-8

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004291317 DOI