After the Revolution: Gender and Democracy in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala (review)

In the 1980s, great optimism accompanied the transition from authoritarian regimes to democracy throughout Latin America. Observers enthusiastically documented the rise and participation of civil society as trade unions, professional organizations, "new social movements," and previously marginalized political parties demanded a say in the constitution of a new politics. As the so-called "lost decade" passed, however, the optimism became more guarded. The new democracies were formally sound, but institutionalizing a strong party system required more than just words on paper and good intentions. New studies began focusing less on the triumph of democracy and more on the difficulties of moving away from dictatorship. The prevalence of what Guillermo O'Donnell called "low-intensity citizenship" required analyses of democracy to go beyond formal elections to research the quality of democratic life.

Ilja Luciak's book After the Revolution on this topic is a very good book. Luciak provides a well-written and thorough evaluation of the difficult transition from revolution to democracy in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. Arguing that any study of democratic transition should regard the status of women in politics as a key indicator of substantive change, Luciak draws on a wealth of qualitative and quantitative information to analyze the extent and nature of women's incorporation into official politics. Although Luciak is clearly sympathetic with the Leftist regimes, he succeeds in presenting an even-handed portrayal of their postrevolutionary experiences (even going so far as to compare the Sandinistas with the Nicaraguan Contras). The first two chapters detail the extent to which women and men participated in the Central American Guerilla movements and the subsequent Peace Accords. Both chapters rely on quantitative evidence that the author admits may be partial. The third chapter is the one most consistently based on qualitative information. It is a comparison of life in the "grass roots" in three different villages in El Salvador. This is a very interesting chapter, although the author does not sift through the various points made in order to draw out common or analytically relevant themes. The author also never explains his rationale for choosing these three towns and the link between violence, insecure land title, and gender is not explicit. Chapter 4 is a very interesting "behind the scenes" analysis of the difficulties in transforming a guerilla movement into a democratic party. Chapter 5 is the best chapter, partly because of the material and partly because Luciak provides a coherent set of themes in discussing "gender equality in the new Left," rather than allowing the numbers or interviews to speak for themselves.

Ultimately, I would recommend this book as an excellent description of women and men in postrevolutionary politics. Despite its title, I would not recommend the book as an analysis of gender and democracy. Luciak provides an in-depth analysis of the different political roles men and women occupy in these three countries, but he does not analyze how these gender relations are constituted or provide detail on what impact the partial incorporation of women in politics will have on the lived experience of democracy. Luciak never systematically goes through his information to show how the poor representation of women in postrevolutionary politics is shaped by revolutionary doctrine, societal values, or the women's movement. He makes tantalizing allusions to all of these, but seems to be reluctant to impose any sort of order or analytical relevance on his informants. For example, Luciak documents the argument that "women have extra work to do," and argues convincingly that this not-so-subtle discrimination contributed to the unequal gender roles during the revolutionary period, but he does not explore further the relationship between the constitution of gender attitudes in everyday life and the constitution of gender attitudes in political participation. The persuasive influence of international voices on domestic feminisms is also brought up several times, but never...