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Incomplete Democracy in Central America: Polarization and Voter Turnout in Nicaragua and El Salvador

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

William A. Barnes
William A. Barnes*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Boalt Hall, University of California at Berkeley
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Extract

Until relatively recently, the small, poor countries of Central America were typically regarded as particularly poor candidates for democratization, despite a good measure of early and sustained success in Costa Rica (Ebel 1972, 1984; Rosenberg 1987). Nevertheless, over the years 1984–1996, “transitions to democracy” have been realized throughout the region. Given the extremely negative economic conditions of the 1980s and 1990s and the extent and historical intractability of political violence in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, these transitions via peace processes and “elections of the century” are remarkable achievements. Still, the fullness and consolidation of democracy remain very much up in the air, as is widely the case among countries that have experienced some degree of democratic transition during the last two decades (the so-called “third wave”). This situation raises the prospect of a historical era in which the poorer provinces of the globe are populated largely by “hybrid regimes” that are, at best, highly incomplete democracies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1998 , pp. 63 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1998

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