Entre la comunidad y la república: Ciudadanía y sociedad civil en Guatemala by Marco Fonseca (review)

178 The Latin Americanist Spring 2006 tion. Avengers of the New World would be an enlighteningstudy for any studentof colonial or Caribbeanhistory. Charlene i ? Overturf Amstrong AtlanticState University Entre la comunidady la repdblica: Ciudadaniay sociedad civil en Guatemala.By Marco Fonseca. F&G Editores:Guatemala, 2004,p. 210, $ --. This book clearly demonstrates Marco Fonseca’s intense and thoughtful engagementwith the politics of his native Guatemala , althoughhe now livesand teaches in Canada.The book was occasionedby the general electionsof late 2003, and in particular by the stunning defeat administered by the electorate to retired General and ex-President Efrain Rios Montt.The centralthesis is that the electoraldefeat of Rios Montt amounted to a “democratic countercoup” against the general’s attempt to take the country back to the days of traditionalauthoritarianism.He arguesthat the newly inauguratedgovernmentof PresidentOscar Berger has the obligation to press forward with this countercoupby strengthening civil societyand a multiculturalvision of citizenship. Fonseca begins with a biting critique of Rios Montt’s modem version of traditional caudillismo, characterized by the presumptuous slogan, “I am Guatemala.” Both the leader and his followers, argues Fonseca, see the ultimate source of political legitimacy not in a democraticallymobilized electorate, but in the very person of the leader and his abilityto impose his will. This authoritarian predisposition has deep roots in Guatemalan political culture, includinga widespread traditionalcommunitarianism that lends itself to clientelismand patronage.Moreover,he argues, the traditional left is as much part of the problem as part of the solution,since it is also authoritarianand lackinga commitment to democraticpluralism. The democratic countercoup embodied in the 2003 elections was, Fonseca argues, a reaffirmation of the path toward peace embodied in the 1996Peace Accords that put a formal end to decades of internal warfare. At the same time, it exposed the inadequaciesof that settlementand the need for a deepening and broadening of civil society. The peace settlementwas essentially negotiated between the leadershipof the insurgentsand the traditional political leadership of the major parties. The mass of citi- Book Reviews 179 zens organized in civil society had no direct participation.As a result, the Peace Accords suffer from a lack of legitimacy even though they represent a vital new departurefor Guatemala. It is precisely the weakness of an autonomous, self-constituting civil society that permitted the resurgence of clientelistic partisan politics in the campaignof 2003. Paradoxically,however, civil society was strong enough in the 2003 election to turnback the presidentialbid of Rios Montt. What is needed now, he argues, is to move beyond the democratic countercoup to a more profound realization of civil societythat is capable of creating a more authenticdemocracy in a context of peace and human development.Whereas a military coup is led by an institutionand is essentiallyviolent psychologically ,politically,and constitutionally,the democraticcountercoup displayed radically distinct patterns, which could only occur in a well-defined situation. First, it was a long-range phenomenon reflecting a slow process of learning and civic training. Second, it showed the gradual emergenceof individualityamong citizens who are becoming less bound to particularcommunities. Third, it was fundamentallycivil, that is, nonviolent, nonconfrontational, and non-militaristic. Fourth, it could only occur in an electoral context like that of 2003, where no party won a first round victory and thus no party had a clear claim to represent the whole people. Fifth, a democraticcountercoupwas made possiblewhen no party achieved majority representation in the ,Congress,and power was also widely distributed in the more informalpolitical arena. Finally, the countercoupwill only achieve its full realization in the context of a more fully democraticsociety. The book concludesby exhortingthe new administrationof Oscar Berger to build on the openingprovided by the democratic countercoupby fulfilling four conditions. First, it is necessary to convince the political and economicelites that the cost of implementing the agenda of peace and human developmentis lower in the long run that the cost of not.doing it and thereby perpetuating cultural, political, and economic conflicts. Second, a broad coalition must be built around the implementation of the agenda of peace and human development,and an end to patriarchal,patrimonial ,indigenist,and paternalistpractices.Third,rather than a pact of governability,or a national project,it is time to reshapethe debate in terms of a project of a democraticrepublicmulticultural in...