Insurgents and the path to democracy.
The readings this week were very interesting in talking about the paths of democracy. Especially in Woods reading talking about the “insurgent path of democracy”. Economic elites in Latin America were at first reluctant to democratization. They were able to fight democratization because in their oligarchy system they had a great deal of power. But eventually the elites believed their interests would be better secured under democracy but as woods says only under “the discipline of labor offered by glutted labor markets, the discipline of economic policy promised by the threat of capital flight in liberalized economies, and constitutional assurances of the security of their property”.
Another situation that helped with the democratization in Latin American countries were international actors such as America giving support to the El Salvador military during negotiations with insurgents. But with America giving aid to the El Salvadorian military there were several killings. That was a major issue and one that I agree with. As we have read and learned about in class, America giving aid to certain leaders or military’s in Latin America has not always gone over well. Such as The School of the Americas where several Latin American leaders have gotten in international trouble for human rights violations and yet you see they trained in America. Thousands of innocents have died and is it worth helping these leaders and their military’s? El Salvador is just one example of many. Possible aid could help quicken the transition to democracy, but is the bloodshed truly worth it? I myself would say no.
Why was the insurgency so successful among the people in El Salvador? In the 1970s the Salvadorian state was very repressive. This gave way to peasants, students, and workers giving ample support to the insurgency. With the civil war on its way there was a military stalemate. This war also ended up hurting the economy, domestic product fell 28% between 1978 and 1982. The insurgency and counter insurgency measures caused the economic trends.
The insurgency truly effected the economic elites. Shifting their interests to more commercial than Agriculture. The insurgency truly paved the way to democratization.