Political bargaining and democratic transitions: A comparison of Nicaragua and El Salvador

Journal of Latin American Studies

Volumn 31, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 99-127

  O'Shaughnessy, Laura Nuzzi ^a   Dodson, Michael ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

BARGAINING; DEMOCRACY; INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON; POLITICAL SYSTEM;

EL SALVADOR; NICARAGUA;

EID: 0032773898     PISSN: 0022216X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022216X98005227     Document Type: Article

References (85)

1. See, for example, Electoral Democracy Under International Pressure (Pittsburgh: Latin American Studies Association, March, 1990); Lisa Haas and Gina Perez, 'Voting with their stomachs: "Las Elecciones del Siglo" in El Salvador', the LASA Forum, vol. XXV, no. 3 (Fall, 1994), pp. 3-6; Jack Spence, David R. Dye and George Vickers, El Salvador: Elections of the Century (Cambridge, Mass.: 1994); and Terry Lynn Karl, 'El Salvador's Negotiated Revolution', Foreign Affairs, vol. 71, no. 2 (Spring, 1992), pp. 147-64.
2. See, for example, Electoral Democracy Under International Pressure (Pittsburgh: Latin American Studies Association, March, 1990); Lisa Haas and Gina Perez, 'Voting with their stomachs: "Las Elecciones del Siglo" in El Salvador', the LASA Forum, vol. XXV, no. 3 (Fall, 1994), pp. 3-6; Jack Spence, David R. Dye and George Vickers, El Salvador: Elections of the Century (Cambridge, Mass.: 1994); and Terry Lynn Karl, 'El Salvador's Negotiated Revolution', Foreign Affairs, vol. 71, no. 2 (Spring, 1992), pp. 147-64.
3. See, for example, Electoral Democracy Under International Pressure (Pittsburgh: Latin American Studies Association, March, 1990); Lisa Haas and Gina Perez, 'Voting with their stomachs: "Las Elecciones del Siglo" in El Salvador', the LASA Forum, vol. XXV, no. 3 (Fall, 1994), pp. 3-6; Jack Spence, David R. Dye and George Vickers, El Salvador: Elections of the Century (Cambridge, Mass.: 1994); and Terry Lynn Karl, 'El Salvador's Negotiated Revolution', Foreign Affairs, vol. 71, no. 2 (Spring, 1992), pp. 147-64.
4. See, for example, Electoral Democracy Under International Pressure (Pittsburgh: Latin American Studies Association, March, 1990); Lisa Haas and Gina Perez, 'Voting with their stomachs: "Las Elecciones del Siglo" in El Salvador', the LASA Forum, vol. XXV, no. 3 (Fall, 1994), pp. 3-6; Jack Spence, David R. Dye and George Vickers, El Salvador: Elections of the Century (Cambridge, Mass.: 1994); and Terry Lynn Karl, 'El Salvador's Negotiated Revolution', Foreign Affairs, vol. 71, no. 2 (Spring, 1992), pp. 147-64.
5. Richard Stahler-Sholk, 'El Salvador's Negotiated Transition: From Low Intensity Conflict to Low Intensity Democracy ', Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, vol. 36, no. 4 (Winter, 1994), pp. 1 - 61.
6. Philip J. Williams, 'Dual Transition from Authoritarian Rule: Popular and Electoral Democracy in Nicaragua', Comparative Politics (January, 1994), pp. 169-85.
7. Terry Lynn Karl, 'Dilemmas of Democratization in Latin America', Comparative Politics, vol. 23, no. 1 (October 1990), pp. 1-21; Terry Lynn Karl and Philippe C. Schmitter, 'Modes of Transition in Latin America, Southern and Eastern Europe', International Social Science Journal, vol. 128, no. 2 (May 1991), pp. 269-284; Karen L. Remmer, '"New Wine in Old Bottlenecks?" The Study of Latin American Democracy', Comparative Politics, vol. 23, no. 4 (July 1991), pp. 479-495.
8. Terry Lynn Karl, 'Dilemmas of Democratization in Latin America', Comparative Politics, vol. 23, no. 1 (October 1990), pp. 1-21; Terry Lynn Karl and Philippe C. Schmitter, 'Modes of Transition in Latin America, Southern and Eastern Europe', International Social Science Journal, vol. 128, no. 2 (May 1991), pp. 269-284; Karen L. Remmer, '"New Wine in Old Bottlenecks?" The Study of Latin American Democracy', Comparative Politics, vol. 23, no. 4 (July 1991), pp. 479-495.
9. Terry Lynn Karl, 'Dilemmas of Democratization in Latin America', Comparative Politics, vol. 23, no. 1 (October 1990), pp. 1-21; Terry Lynn Karl and Philippe C. Schmitter, 'Modes of Transition in Latin America, Southern and Eastern Europe', International Social Science Journal, vol. 128, no. 2 (May 1991), pp. 269-284; Karen L. Remmer, '"New Wine in Old Bottlenecks?" The Study of Latin American Democracy', Comparative Politics, vol. 23, no. 4 (July 1991), pp. 479-495.
10. Eric Nordlinger, 'Political Development, Time Sequences and Rates of Change', in Jason L. Finkle and Robert W. Gable, (eds.), Political Development and Social Change, 2nd ed. (New York: John Wiley, 1971); Leonard Binder, et al., (eds.), Crises and Sequences in Political Development (Princeton, 1971).
11. Eric Nordlinger, 'Political Development, Time Sequences and Rates of Change', in Jason L. Finkle and Robert W. Gable, (eds.), Political Development and Social Change, 2nd ed. (New York: John Wiley, 1971); Leonard Binder, et al., (eds.), Crises and Sequences in Political Development (Princeton, 1971).
12. Karl and Schmitter, 'Modes of Transition', p. 281.
13. Christopher C. Coleman, The Salvadorean Peace Process: A Preliminary Inquiry (Oslo, Norway: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, 1993), p. 17.
14. Jack Child, The Central American Peace Process, 1983 - 1991: Sheathing Swords, Building Confidence (Boulder, CO: 1992), pp. 134-5.
15. Joseph S. Tulchin, (ed.), Is There a Transition to Democracy in El Salvador? (Boulder, CO, 1992), p. 38.
16. John A. Booth and Thomas W. Walker, Understanding Central America, 2nd ed., (Boulder, CO, 1993), pp. 103-4.
17. Celeste Mackenzie, 'El Salvador: Peace Talks Produce Reform Plan', Mesoamerica, vol. 10, no. 5 (May 1991), pp. 3 - 4.
18. Gerardo L. Munck, 'Beyond Electoralism in El Salvador: Conflict Resolution through Negotiated Compromise', Third World Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 1 (1992), p. 86; Coleman, 1993, p. 21.
19. Gerardo L. Munck, 'Beyond Electoralism in El Salvador: Conflict Resolution through Negotiated Compromise', Third World Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 1 (1992), p. 86; Coleman, 1993, p. 21.
20. George Vickers and Jack Spence, End game : A Progress Report on Implementation of the Salvadorean Peace Accords (Cambridge, Mass., 1992), pp. 3-4.
21. Munck, 1993, p. 86.
22. For an insightful account of how the Salvadorean armed forces established and maintained control over the rural population, see Knut Walter and Philip J. Williams, 'The Military and Democratisation in El Salvador', Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, vol. 35, no. 1 (1993), pp. 39-88.
23. Vickers and Spencc, 1992, pp. 12-15.
24. Thomas Buergenthal, 'The United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador', in Neil J. Kritz, (ed.), Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes, vol. 1 (Washington, DC, 1995), p. 304. Buergenthal contends that the Ad Hoc Commission report gave added weight to the report of the Truth commission, suggesting that in fact the two commissions, though quite different in composition, reinforced one another in practice. If so, this would be one of the more positive results of the peace accords. Buergenthal also makes a pointed critique of the Cristiani government, stating that 'the government and the military only agreed to the establishment of the Ad Hoc Commission because they were convinced that it would not dare to discharge its responsibilities honestly (p. 304)'. To the government's surprise, it dared to do just that.
25. Ibid., p. 307.
26. Ibid., p. 308.
27. Ibid., p. 320.
28. Margaret Popkin and Naomi Roht-Arriaza, 'Truth as Justice: Investigatory commissions in Latin America', in Kritz, (ed.), 1995, pp. 277-8.
29. Quoted in Buergenthal, 1995, pp. 317-18.
30. Ibid.
31. Interview with Dr Rene Hernandez Valiente, San Salvador, 6 June 1995.
32. Interview with Dr Enrique Argumedo, San Salvador, 9 June 1995.
33. Interview with Dr José Albino Tinetti, San Salvador, 6 June 1995.
34. Interview with Marta Valladares, President, Commission of Justice and Human Rights, Legislative Assembly, San Salvador, 12 June 1995.
35. Reed Brody, 'The United Nations and Human Rights in El Salvador's "Negotiated Resolution'", 1995 (mimeo), p. 14.
36. Interview with Dr Enrique Argumedo, San Salvador, 9 June 1995.
37. Interview with Francisco Díaz Rodríguez, Center for the Study of Applied Law (CESPAD), San Salvador, 12 June 1995.
38. 'Los salvadoreǹos opinan sobre el sistema de justicia y los derechos humanos', Instituto Universitario de Opinión Pública, Boletín de Prensa. XI, 5 (21 de agosto de 1996), pp. 1-5.
39. Interview with Dr. Marina de Avilés, Procurator for the Defence of Human Rights, San Salvador, 14 June 1995.
40. Brody, 1995, p. 16.
41. Ibid., p. 14
42. Quoted in Margaret Popkin, George Vickers and Jack Spence, Justice Impugned: The Salvadorean Peace Accords and the Problem of Impunity (Cambridge, Mass., 1993), p. 11.
43. 'The Situation in Central America: Procedures For the Establishment of a Firm and Lasting Peace and Progress in Fashioning a Region of Peace, Freedom, Democracy and Development', Report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, A/51/693 (25 November 1996), p. 4.
44. Interview with Marta Valladares, San Salvador, 12 June 1995. Note, however, that Buergenthal stresses the importance of having identified publicly many of the worst human rights offenders, citing it as one of the main achievements of the Truth commission and thus of the peace process. See Buergenthal, 1995, cited above.
45. Envío, vol. 15, no. 180 (July, 1996), p. 21.
46. Agreement between the Constitutional Government of Nicaragua and the Nicaraguan Resistance, unofficial translation, Managua, 1988, Points 6 - 9, no publisher or page numbers.
47. For a full discussion of the development of the National Resistance, see Peter Kornbluth, 'The Covert War', in Thomas W.Walker, (ed.), Reagan Versus the Sandinistas, the Undeclared War on Nicaragua (Boulder, CO, 1987), p, 26.
48. New York Times as quoted in Central America Update, vol. 7, no. 12 (29 April 1988), p. 3.
49. Dennis Gilbert, Sandinistas: The FSLN and the Party (New York, 1988), P. 195.
50. 'Electoral Democracy Under International Pressure', Report of the Latin American Studies Commission to Observe the 1990 Nicaraguan Elections (Pittsburgh: Latin American Studies Association), pp. 21-2.
51. 'Observing Nicaragua's Elections, 1989-1990, The Carter Center, Special Report No. 1' (Atlanta, Georgia: the Carter Center of Emory University, 1990), pp. 31-5.
52. The provisions mentioned in the text can be found in Emilio A. Montalvan, 'The Toncontín Accord for the Disarmament and Demobilization of the Nicaraguan Resistance', in Emilio A. Montalvan, Las Fuerzas Armadas in Nicaragua, Sinopsis Historica 1821-1994 (Managua, 1994), p. 124.
53. 'The Toncontín Accord for the Disarmament and Demobilization of the Nicaraguan Resistante', in Emilio A. Montalvan, Las Fuerzas Armadas in Nicaragua, Sinopsis Histórica 1821-1994 (Managua, 1994), p. 116. The direct quote is from Dr Montalvan who also pointed out in an interview (11 January 1996) that the Transition Commission was unsuccessful due to a scarcity of funds, and political infighting among contra leaders.
54. Ariel Armony, 'The Former Contras', in Thomas W. walker (ed.), Nicaragua without Illusions. Regime Transformation and Structural Adjustment in the 1990s (Wilmington, DE, 1997), p. 207.
55. El Protocol de Transición', in Montalvan, 1994, pp. 117-19.
56. Ibid.
57. Interview with Dr Janet Ballentyne, USAID Project Director, Managua, 20 July 1991.
58. Electoral Democracy (March, 1990).
59. Luis G, Solís and Richard J. Wilson, Political Transition and the Administration of Justice in Nicaragua (Miami, 1991), p. 13.
60. 'Sandinista Power Plays', The Washington Post, 12 May 1992.
61. K. Storrs, Larry Sullivan and Maureen Taft-Morales, 'Nicaragua: Background and U.S. Policy Concerns', CRS Report for Congress, 23 May 1994, P. 5.
62. Abelardo Morales, Oficios de Paz y Posguerra en Centroamérica (San Jose, Costa Rica, 1995), pp. 49-52.
63. Child, 1992, p. 85.
64. Cesar Sereceres, 'The Regional Peace Keeping Role of the Organization of American States, Nicaragua, 1990-1993', in Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson and Pamela Aall, (eds.), Managing Global Chaos: Sources of and Responses to International Conflict (Washington, DC, 1997), PP. 551 -562.
65. Interview with Santiago Murray, CIAV Director, Managua, 23 July 1991.
66. Caesar Sereseres, PP. 551-5.
67. Child, PP. 103-6
68. Morales, Abelardo, PP. 55-66.
69. Ariel Armony, P. 208
70. El Salvador's Decade of Terror: Human Rights Since the Assassination of Archbishop Romero (New Haven, 1991).
71. 'Nicaragua: Separating Fact from Fiction: The Work of the Tripartite Commission", Human Rights Watch /Americans, vol. 6, no. 13 (October 1994), p. 3.
72. Ibid., p. 4.
73. Interview with Dr Winston Betanco, Managua, 12 January 1996.
74. 'Nicaragua : Background and U.S. Policy Concerns', CRS Report for Congress (23 May 1994), PP. 2-3.
75. The New York Times. 16 July 1995, p. 10.
76. Jean Paul Genie was killed in October 1990 as he drove his car past a motorcade transporting Minister of Defence, Humberto Ortega. Ortega and his bodyguards have denied involvement in the shooting of the seventeen year old. A Nicaraguan military court, claiming insufficient evidence, threw the case out. The Nicaraguan Supreme Court refused to act on an appeal brought by the Genie family. In 1996, the family took the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The case was still undecided in 1997.
77. Weekly News Update on the Americas 265 (16 February 1995).
78. The New York Times, 16 July 1995, p. 2.
79. 'Nicaragua : Separating Fact from Fiction : The Work of the Tripartite Commission ', Human Rights Watch/Americas (October 1994), PP. 3-4.
80. The CEPAD Report, May/June 1995, pp. 9-11.
81. After months of delay, a compromise was reached that gave the Assembly the right to approve, by negotiation and consensus, future agreements. See the Christian Science Monitor, 20 June 1995, P. 6.
82. Contesting Everything, Winning Nothing: The Search for Consensus in Nicaragua, 1990-1995 (Cambridge, Mass., 1995), p. 33.
83. Central America Newspak, vols. 10, 11, p. 10.
84. La Jornada, 7 July 1996, p. 54, as quoted in Central America Newspak, vols. 11, 12 , p. 11.
85. La Jornada, 7 July 1996, p. 54, as quoted in Central America Newspak, vols. 11, 12 , p. 11.