Forging Democracy from Below: Insurgent Transitions in South Africa and El Salvador

by Elisabeth Jean Wood

• ISBN13: 9780521788878
• ISBN10: 0521788870
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-10-30
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The recent replacement of authoritarian rule by democracy in both South Africa and El Salvador poses a puzzle: why did the powerful, anti-democratic elites of these countries abandon death squads, apartheid, and the other tools of political repression and take a chance on democracy? Forging Democracy From Below shows how popular mobilization--in El Salvador an effective guerilla army supported by peasant collaboration and in South Africa a powerful alliance of labor unions and poor urban dwellers--forced the elite to the bargaining table, and why a durable settlement and democratic government were the result.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Tables	xi
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xvii
List of Abbreviations	xxi
Introduction
From Civil War to Democracy	3	(22)
Part One El Salvador's Path to Democracy
From Conservative Modernization to Civil War	25	(27)
The Structural Foundation of a Pact: The Transformation of Elite Interests	52	(26)
Negotiating a Democratic Transition to End Civil War	78	(33)
Part Two From Racial Oligarchy to Pluralist Democracy in South Africa
Apartheid, Conservative Modernization, and Mobilization	111	(32)
The Challenge to Economic Elite Interests	143	(26)
From Recalcitrance to Compromise	169	(28)
Conclusion
The Insurgent Path to Democracy in Oligarchic Societies	197	(12)
Epilogue: The Legacy of Democracy Forged From Below	209	(4)
Appendix: A Model of Negotiated Resolution of Civil Conflicts	213	(6)
Note on Statistical Sources	219	(2)
References	221	(18)
Index	239