Coffee and power
Subtitle: revolution and the rise of democracy in Central America
By: Jeffery M. Paige.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 432
Subjects: Coffee industry -- Costa Rica -- History -- 20th century.; Coffee industry -- El Salvador -- History -- 20th century.; Coffee industry -- Nicaragua -- History -- 20th century.; Elite (Social sciences) -- Costa Rica -- History -- 20th century.; Elite (Social sciences) -- El Salvador -- History -- 20th century.; Elite (Social sciences) -- Nicaragua -- History -- 20th century.; Costa Rica -- Politics and government -- 20th century.; El Salvador -- Politics and government -- 20th century.; Nicaragua -- Politics and government -- To 1960.; Nicaragua -- Politics and government -- 1960-
Description: "Extraordinary wealth and variety of historiographical, interview, and statistical data undergird a critical application of Barrington Moore's theses on revolution and democracy to the cases of Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Three different class-and-state structures, largely generated by their coffee economies, are analyzed by dividing the upper classes into (purely) agrarian elites and their agroindustrial (processor/exporter) counterparts. A deepening split between them paved the recent path toward democratization in both El Salvador and Nicaragua. Costa Rica's earlier, smoother democratization is accounted for by the processor-grower social pact of the 1930s. Yet all three arrived arrived at more democratic, though flawed, neoliberal systems by the 1990s"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 373-424) and index.