The Violence of Democracy [electronic resource] : Political Life in Postwar El Salvador /
Montoya, Ainhoa.author.
This book offers novel insights about the ability of a democracy to accommodate violence. In El Salvador, the end of war has brought about a violent peace, one in which various forms of violence have become incorporated into Salvadorans’ imaginaries and enactments of democracy. Based on ethnographic research, The Violence of Democracy argues that war legacies and the country’s neoliberalization have enabled an intricate entanglement of violence and political life in postwar El Salvador. This volume explores various manifestations of this entanglement: the clandestine connections between violent entrepreneurs and political actors; the blurring of the licit and illicit through the consolidation of economies of violence; and the reenactment of latent wartime conflicts and political cleavages during postwar electoral seasons. The author also discusses the potential for grassroots memory work and a political party shift to foster hopeful visions of the future and, ultimately, to transform the country’s violent democracy. Ainhoa Montoya is Lecturer in Latin American Studies and ESRC Future Research Leaders Fellow at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK.
1. Introduction  -- 2. The Fallacy of the Telos of Transition  -- 3. The Postwar Gray Zone of Politics  -- 4. Neoliberalization and the Violence Within  -- 5. War Reenactment through Elections  -- 6. Memory Work in the Aftermath of War  -- 7. The 2009 Shift  -- 8. Conclusion -- 9. Epilogue.
This book offers novel insights about the ability of a democracy to accommodate violence. In El Salvador, the end of war has brought about a violent peace, one in which various forms of violence have become incorporated into Salvadorans’ imaginaries and enactments of democracy. Based on ethnographic research, The Violence of Democracy argues that war legacies and the country’s neoliberalization have enabled an intricate entanglement of violence and political life in postwar El Salvador. This volume explores various manifestations of this entanglement: the clandestine connections between violent entrepreneurs and political actors; the blurring of the licit and illicit through the consolidation of economies of violence; and the reenactment of latent wartime conflicts and political cleavages during postwar electoral seasons. The author also discusses the potential for grassroots memory work and a political party shift to foster hopeful visions of the future and, ultimately, to transform the country’s violent democracy. Ainhoa Montoya is Lecturer in Latin American Studies and ESRC Future Research Leaders Fellow at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK.
Latin America—Politics and government.
Ethnology.
Democracy.
Peace.
Violence.
Crime.
Terrorism.
Political violence.
Latin American Politics.
Social Anthropology.
Democracy.
Conflict Studies.
Violence and Crime.
Terrorism and Political Violence.