Political actors and political change in Central America: a framework for analysis

Abstract

The objective of the article is to point out some hypotheses on the nature and type of relationship –within the context of recent Central American politics—between the structural and dynamic conditions of the processes of change, and the specific ways political actors managed to adapt/impact upon them. Therefore, in the Guatemala and Nicaraguan cases, it is argued that a profound reciprocal impact has taken place, whereby the strategic stands of political parties, popular movements, business organizations and the army succeeded in decisively shaping key aspects of the process of change. But, at the same time, these actors have been deeply transformed –in the organizational, ideological and programmatic dimensions—by the new institutional settings and political spaces they had contributed to build up.