Coffee and Power: Revolution and the Rise of Democracy in Central America

New
Paperback
1998
$49.49

In the revolutionary decade between 1979 and 1992, it would have been difficult to find three political systems as different as death-dominated El Salvador, peaceful social-democratic Costa-Rica, and revolutionary Sandinista Nicaragua. Yet when the fighting ended, all three had found a common destination in democracy and free markets. This text fuses political economy and cultural analysis to show that both the divergent political histories and their convergent outcome were shaped by a single commodity: coffee. Jeffrey Paige's analysis challenges current theories of dictatorship and democracy, and shows that revolution in Central America is deeply rooted in the histories of the coffee elites.

Synopsis

In the revolutionary decade between 1979 and 1992, it would have been difficult to find three political systems as different as death-dominated El Salvador, peaceful social-democratic Costa-Rica, and revolutionary Sandinista Nicaragua. Yet when the fighting ended, all three had found a common destination in democracy and free markets. This text fuses political economy and cultural analysis to show that both the divergent political histories and their convergent outcome were shaped by a single commodity: coffee. Jeffrey Paige's analysis challenges current theories of dictatorship and democracy, and shows that revolution in Central America is deeply rooted in the histories of the coffee elites.

$49.49

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 448
Edition: New edition
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 27 Feb 1998
ISBN 10: 0674136497
ISBN 13: 9780674136496

Media Reviews

A sweeping historical analysis of the encouraging yet still fragile emergence of democracy in Central America...Through exhaustive historical research and enterprising interviews, [the author] penetrates the worlds of the most powerful families of El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica...Paige has illuminated a path for comprehending countries whose histories have often been caricatured by polemicists and ignored by policy makers. -- Thomas Carothers New York Times Book Review A detailed, comprehensive work on the complex relationship between coffee and political and financial might in this region...Coffee is evidently not the sole influence propelling these nations along the democratic path, but this volume demonstrates how ideologies and crises are interrelated, an important factor for a region with such an uncertain political future. British Bulletin of Publications on Latin America, the Caribbean, Portugal and Spain The main lesson from this thoughtful, well-written book: if coffee is grown with less repression, with social welfare programs, with more owned by small-holders, then the poor are less likely to join revolutions...[Paige's conclusions] are reasonable and it is important to have them documented in this fair, well-researched book. This book will appeal to people interested in the history of Central America, to students of peace and war, to scholars of coffee economics and politics, and to political ecologists. -- Jeffery W. Bentley Agriculture and Human Values Coffee and Power makes an important contribution to the literature on transitions to democracy. Paige notes with irony that the establishment of parliamentary democracies may represent the most important achievement of the Salvadoran and Nicaraguan Left of the 1980s, as it was for the Costa Rican Left of the 1930s and 1940s. -- Laurie Medina American Anthropologist

Author Bio

Jeffery M. Paige is Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.