Varieties of Liberalism in Central America: Nation-States as Works in Progress

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION Why do some countries progress while others seemingly so similar stagnate? What explains abrupt changes in the tack of countries? Why does adversity strengthen some countries and weaken other countries? Probing deeper, in this era of unprecedented movement of people, goods, and ideas, just what constitutes a country, a state, a nation? These sweeping questions have been suggested to us by watching the evolution of the five countries of the Central American isthmus. In the 1980s, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala were wrecked by civil war, unnerving Honduras and Costa Rica. The violence was deemed by many to be an inevitable consequence of stark class divisions and a subordinate position in the international economy. The United States was blamed, too, for contributing to the permanence of an ill-suited status quo. These determinants of political fate were widely viewed as so immutable , so ponderous, that there was judged to be no middle ground between bloody revolution and bloody repression. A quarter of a century later—a long period in the life of an individual, but a short period in the life of a country—the region looks different, and it is different. The salience of class has receded, remarkably so, and political violence is rare. Insurgents have vanished, and so—even—have many organizations of the poor and the dispossessed. The military, long such a force in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, has receded from political life. In all five countries of the region, governors are chosen in free, competitive elections. And in these elections, Central Americans have embraced political moderation and continuity. The results of these elections have been accepted as sacrosanct by all political actors. Another sea change is in the perception of the international economy, formerly feared; it is now seen as a neutral arena to be entered valiantly. And the behemoth, the United States, has come to be home to many Central Americans, a cultural beacon, and a commercial partner actively courted by governors of the region’s countries. How did the five Central American countries alter course so quickly and so uniformly? Why the ascendancy of liberalism, of democracy and unfettered markets? There are, to be sure, rough edges—inconsistencies, some of them glaring—in this change of tack. But the change is nonetheless remarkable. Where is this new paradigm, interpreted as it is within the confines of individual nation-states, taking Central Americans? Within the puzzle of how Central Americans have changed course lies an enigma, one that bedevils efforts to explain economic—and so, social—development. While all of the five countries of the isthmus have remade themselves since the 1980s, one country has truly prospered—moved forward. Another country, unfortunately, has stumbled backwards. In the 1960s, neighboring Nicaragua and Costa Rica had comparable per capita incomes. The World Bank’s World Development Report 2005 suggested Costa Rica had reached an awkward milestone: its per capita income was reported to be six times that of Nicaragua. What went right? What went wrong? How can such dissimilar outcomes within such a compressed period of time be explained? Costa Rica’s success and Nicaragua’s misfortune is more than an enigma. Most Costa Ricans live reasonably well, and the percentage of Costa Ricans mired in poverty has declined significantly since the 1980s. In contrast, most Nicaraguans are overwhelmedwithpovertyandhardship;lifehasgotten“harder.” Why should “citizenship” matter so much? What does it mean, anyway, to be “Costa Rican,” “Nicaraguan,” or, for that matter, “Salvadoran,” “Honduran,” or “Guatemalan”? xii Varieties of Liberalism in Central America We have so many expansive, searching questions. And the academy today does not encourage—or welcome—asking big questions, believing they cannot be answered with certainty . It is true; we can offer only tentative answers. Indeed, a leitmotiv of the study is the indeterminacy of the fate—the politics—of countries. There is causality, but not the kind that can be revealed in the laboratory or on the blackboard. There are simply too many “variables,” and they cannot be isolated or measured, and, moreover, they interact in a dizzy, obfuscating way. Countries are enigmatic. Still, the nation-state is the most important political entity. Furthermore, the differences among nation-states, even those that are neighbors, can be striking. Such is the case in Central America. In looking for answers to questions about the evolution of countries and the differences among them, attention can be drawn to the constraints nation-states...