Democratic transitions in Central America / edited by Jorge I. Domínguez and Marc Lindenberg. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Domínguez, Jorge I., 1945-

Lindenberg, Marc.

Standardized Title:

Transiciones democráticas en Centro América. English.

Language:

English

Spanish

Subjects (All):

Democracy--Central America--History.

Democracy.

Central America--Politics and government--1979-.

Central America.

Democracy--History--Central America.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 210 p. ) ill. ;

Place of Publication:

Gainesville : University Press of Florida, c1997.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Remarkable changes have occurred over the past fifteen years in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama. Wars are ending, political systems have opened up substantially, and economic policies have been redesigned to favor market approaches. Most of the published literature on this area did not explain these developments and, in fact, had considered them improbable. The editors address four questions: How do the powerful yield their power? How do key figures bring about political liberalization and democratization against seemingly impossible odds? What rules or arrangements do they design to achieve these outcomes? What is the behavior of economic elites in political and economic liberalization?

The ten contributors are all active political figures in Central America, often from opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. They include a former president, a former defense minister, two former finance ministers, a Sandinista commander, a former associate of the Salvadoran guerrillas, and three presidential candidates - all providing reflections and insights on the processes by which they helped bring about political and economic change in Central America.

Contents:

Democratic transitions in Central America and Panama / Jorge I. Domínguez

The political and economic transition of Panama, 1978-1991 / Nicolás Aridito-Barletta

Revolution and democratic transition in Nicaragua / Jaime Wheelock Román

Democratic transitions in Nicaragua/ Silvio de Franco and José Luis Velázquez

Political transition in Guatamala, 1980-1990 : a perspective from inside Guatamala's army / Héctor Alejandro Gramajo Morales

Guatamala 1978-1993 : the incomplete process of the transition to democracy / Rodolfo Paiz-Andrade

Democratic transition or modernization? : the case of El Salvador since 1979 / Rubén Zamora

Recent Central American transitions : conclusions and policy implications / Marc Lindenberg.

Notes:

"First published in Spanish in ... Transiciones democráticas en Centro América"--Foreword.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-8130-2145-6