Suchergebnisse

This article draws on theories of sociopolitical violence and revolution in an attempt to explain the origin of the widespread popular political mobilization that has played a major part in Central America's recent rebellions. The study employs aggregate data from the 1950s through the 1980s, as well as descriptive data, to explore how differences in the rate and nature of economic growth, income and wealth distribution, and governmental response to unrest, may have contributed to rebellions in Somoza's Nicaragua (1977-1979), El Salvador (since 1979), and Guatemala (since 1978), and to the lack of rebellions in Honduras and Costa Rica

Since the mid-1970s, tens of thousands of persons in three out of the five Central American countries have revolted against their governments or fought to repress such rebellions. These conflicts have cost more than a quarter of a million lives and created more than two million internal and external refugees. In 1979 a bloody insurrection toppled Nicaragua's Somoza regime. El Salvador's crippling civil war has escalated and reescalated but remains stalemated. In Guatemala since 1980, brutal counterinsurgency warfare, pro-regime terror, and political reform have failed to eliminate a resurgent guerrilla rebellion. Yet while these countries have rent themselves with political violence, their neighbors Honduras and Costa Rica have in general remained politically peaceful.

Based on the forthcoming book, "Democracy in developing countries," volume 4. Partial contents: State economy, and development; Other socioeconomic and political factors affecting Cost Rican liberal democracy.

Breakdown of the rebel coalition that overthrew Somoza and the US-backed counterrevolutionary war that followed; effects on Sandinista policy and the economy.