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CORPORATISM and CONSOLIDATION in CENTRAL AMERICA: DEMOCRACY in EL SALVADOR, HONDURAS & COSTA RICA by DWIGHT EDWARD FISHER WI

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CORPORATISM and CONSOLIDATION in CENTRAL AMERICA: DEMOCRACY in EL SALVADOR, HONDURAS & COSTA RICA by DWIGHT EDWARD FISHER WI CORPORATISM AND CONSOLIDATION IN CENTRAL AMERICA: DEMOCRACY IN EL SALVADOR, HONDURAS & COSTA RICA by DWIGHT EDWARD FISHER WILSON (Under the Direction of Howard J. Wiarda) ABSTRACT Democratic consolidation in Central America has proceeded at a languorous pace, despite the discrediting of alternatives to free markets and democracy. Why are these countries not embracing liberal-pluralist democracy? This thesis proposes that a history of authoritarian corporatism has left vestiges in the legal and political culture that precludes the acceptance of political competition and legitimacy necessary to democratic consolidation. Case studies of El Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica will examine the military, labor organization, and peasantry of each country for evidence of corporatist design and practice. The evidence is found to confirm the hypothesis. The conclusion assesses the impact of corporatism on democratic functioning. INDEX WORDS: Democratic consolidation, Corporatism, Central America, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras CORPORATISM AND CONSOLIDATION IN CENTRAL AMERICA: DEMOCRACY IN EL SALVADOR, HONDURAS & COSTA RICA by DWIGHT EDWARD FISHER WILSON B.A., Georgia State University, 2000 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2004 © 2004 Dwight Wilson All Rights Reserved CORPORATISM AND CONSOLIDATION IN CENTRAL AMERICA: DEMOCRACY IN EL SALVADOR, HONDURAS & COSTA RICA by DWIGHT EDWARD FISHER WILSON Major Professor: Howard J. Wiarda Committee: Christopher S. Allen Gary K. Bertsch Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2004 DEDICATION To Gabrielita. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work would not be complete without acknowledgement of the input of Dr. Howard Wiarda, who supplied invaluable expertise and energy. I must also express my gratitude to Dr. Christopher Allen and Dr. Gary Bertsch for improving this paper by supplying their time and trenchant insight. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................................v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 Defining Democracy .................................................................................................3 Becoming Democratic...............................................................................................5 Consolidation.............................................................................................................6 Liberalism and Corporatism......................................................................................9 Hypotheses ..............................................................................................................13 Methodology ...........................................................................................................15 2 EL SALVADOR..........................................................................................................18 Background.............................................................................................................18 The Military in El Salvador.....................................................................................19 Labor in El Salvador................................................................................................23 The Peasantry in El Salvador ..................................................................................26 Democratizing El Salvador .....................................................................................30 3 HONDURAS ...............................................................................................................33 Background.............................................................................................................33 The Military in Honduras ........................................................................................36 Labor in Honduras...................................................................................................39 vi The Peasantry in Honduras......................................................................................43 Democratizing Honduras.........................................................................................47 4 COSTA RICA..............................................................................................................50 Background .............................................................................................................50 The Military in Costa Rica ......................................................................................52 Labor in Costa Rica.................................................................................................54 The Peasantry in Costa Rica....................................................................................58 Democracy in Costa Rica........................................................................................61 5 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................63 Hypotheses ..............................................................................................................63 Implications.............................................................................................................66 Toward Democratic Corporatism? ..........................................................................68 REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................................72 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION What has happened to democratization in Central America? More than ten years after the settlements ending the crisis in Central America hard on the heels of the dismantling of the Soviet Union, Central America has fallen back into obscurity for most Americans and we assume that, the peace having been secured, the area is democratic and secure. The strides taken toward representative government throughout Latin America have no doubt been considerable – we no longer speak of the “pathology of democracy” that once dominated the discourse – but are neither ineluctable nor irreversible. The palace coups and revolutions that buffeted the small republics of Central America for much of the twentieth century at present appear an implausible option for the discontented, but at the same time a pall of discontent has settled over the populace concerning the success and desirability of democracy, and populists with a flamboyantly undemocratic streak have appeared in several instances. Though majorities endorse democracy as a regime, that endorsement is heavily conditioned on certain performance indicators such as economic prosperity and maintenance of order. In any event democracy may be understood in ways departing dramatically with a Western understanding. A consensus has emerged within the scholarly literature that democratization is “incomplete” and its consolidation stalled, perhaps auguring the end of the third wave. The implications of this occurrence for the future of democracy are profound, particularly keeping in mind Huntington’s observation 1 that waves of democratization are followed by counter-waves of authoritarian regimes.1 Questions concerning the compatibility of democracy with non-Western cultures are beginning to reemerge. Our best predictions in previous decades, or most hopeful guesses, were that as modernization took off and affluence spread, a better educated and sophisticated middle class would demand greater representation and responsive government, and liberal democracy would replace traditional governing apparatuses that could not respond to the needs of modern, plural societies. This model is nonspecific in that it could emerge in any culture area. The particulars of the matrix are incidental, but the demands for rationalization are universal. In Latin America generally, this meant that the creaking Catholic-corporatist formulations handed down from the colonial era should be swept away by the tide of liberal institutions that free the individual from a communally oriented, hierarchical and undemocratic culture. For Central America, this should mean that the quasi-feudal patterns of oligarchic rule enforced by the military are replaced with participatory, competitive, and pluralistic democracy.2 Liberal democracy, of course, does not spring from nothing, and its emergence has proven more stubborn than anticipated by the members of the developmentalist school. Another possibility is that consolidation is illusory, and that liberal democracy may be confined to a relatively small group of nations historically and culturally linked, 1 Huntington, Samuel (1991). The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, Norman: Oklahoma University Press. An interesting study would evaluate Huntington’s “wave” thesis with reference to the impact of domestic factors such as stage of economic development and the character of the national elites. 2 Authoritative studies of Central American society and politics include Thomas P. Anderson (1982) Politics in Central America: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, New York: Praeger; Dana G. Munro (1960). The Latin American Republics, A History. 3rd ed. New York: Appleton-Century Crofts; Ralph Lee Woodward Jr. (1976). Central
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