Democratic transitions in Central America: 1979:1995

Abstract

The nature of democratic transitions in Central America from 1979 onwards (and both their successes and failures) calls for more complex and large analytical models for the analysis of political change. The traditional discussion about the pre-requisites of democracy has to be accompanied by a thorough discussion of the nature and strategies followed by political actors. Finally, given the absence of a clear-cut separation between democratic transition and consolidation of the new democracies, their ability to cope with social and economic problems (especially in those countries where these issues, in terms of pre-requisites, are scarcely promising) becomes critically important for the transition process itself: their performance (in terms of agenda definition and efficiency) is clearly a condition for the success of transitions. A simple framework, integrating these three types of variables, is suggested.