Understanding Central America: Global Forces, Rebellion, and Change 4th ed. by John Booth, Christine Wade, William Walker (review)

160 The Latin Americanist Fall 2006 culture will survive the infiltration by religious sects that could destroy their wisdom and spiritual lives. Liliana Wendoif University of North Carolina at Pembroke Understanding CentralAmerica: Global Forces, Rebellion, and Change 4’h ed. By John Booth, Christine Wade, and William Walker. Boulder: Westview, 2005,p. 285, $28.00. This is the fourth edition of an outstanding series of works by Booth et al. on Central American politics. Works providing introductory coverage of Central American politics are few in number and tend to address the Central American countries individually. This forces readers, without a substantive background in Central America, to piece together the connections and differences between the Central American countries. In addition, these works lack a thematic linkage that connectsissues and problems between countries. Booth et al. from the first edition have provided thematic linkages, albeit thematic linkages that have changed from edition to edition. In previous editions, the authors proposed explanations for the origin of the civil conflicts in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, and proposed explanations for why such conflicts did not occur in Costa Rica and Honduras. The authors’ thematic explanation focused on how regional forces affected the economies of the Central American countries. For example, the longe duree impact of the Central American Common Market (CACM) was given much detailed attention. Initially, the CACM allowed for a growth market in the 1960sand early 1970s,which benefited the economies of most of the Central American countries and the socioeconomic standing of upper and middle class CentralAmericans . However, the demise of the CACM in the 1970s resulted in a drop in real wages, etc. leading to socioeconomic angst among middle class Central Americans characterized by a reduction in purchasing power and loss of status via underemployment. In El Salvador and Nicaragua, the effects of despotism and long-standing socioeconomic disparity in the rural areas of the countries combined with the lost aspirations of a fledgling middle class led to civil conflicts. In fact, there is an important link between becoming impoverished and popular unrest. Large segments of Central America’s poor and middle classes became much worse off during the 1970s and early 1980s. It Book Reviews 161 was not the grinding, long term deprivation of persistent poverty, but this change-impoverishment, declining living conditions-that motivated much of the region’s unrest. (15) In the current fourth edition, the authors examine the relationship between democratic consolidation and public opinion. The variation in attitudes across the Central American countries on the facets of democracy is reflective of the different histories of the countries. For example, voter registration and turnout in 2004 tended to be higher in Central America’s poorer countries and its less repressive ones (150-151). In the civil society arena, Guatemalans and Hondurans were the most engaged in communal activism (152).CostaRicans, Guatemalans,and Salvadorans communicated more with public officials than Hondurans and Nicaraguans , and Guatemalans and Salvadorans were the most active in communicating with local officials (153). Costa Ricans are the most likely to engage in protests. Citizen attitudes concerning democratic norms seem to reflect a fear of instability. Fears about the limitations of democratic governance are illustrated. When interviewers asked what specific hypothetical problems might justify a military takeover of their governments, Central Americans cited official corruption (61 percent), followed by crime (56 percent), and by inflation (55 percent). These finding reveal that, region-wide, Central Americans’ commitment to civilian rule remains partly contingent on the performance of their regimes by the following quote (157). These findings are important as they illustrate variations in attitudes towards various facets of democracy while at the same time reflecting an underlying fear of political and economic instability that fledging democracies are ill equipped to handle. This work is clearly an introductory text as illustrated by its non-esoteric and non-complex arguments. As an introductory text, the work has in common with most regionally oriented works country-by-country overviews. The overviews of the Central American countries in this work are excellent. First, the country overviews are comprehensive: covering a full historical range and encompassing politics and culture. Second, the country overviews are not trite; that is, they are...