Democratisation, War and State-Building
Constructing the Rule of Law in El Salvador
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3362418 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Charles T Call (0000-0002-6930-9220, John Brown University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 827-862 |
| Publication date | 2003-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Latin American Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-216X • E-ISSN: 1469-767X |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0022216x03007004 |
| OpenAlex | W2143129316 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 41 |
After long neglecting issues of citizen security and justice, democratisation theorists have recently begun to recognise the importance of the rule of law. Yet theorising the construction of state institutions of security and justice has tended to be piecemeal and divorced from broader theoretical debates. Using the case of post-war El Salvador, this article first argues that justice and security are tremendously important for the survivability and everyday relevance of democracy, given that crime is the chief threat to support for democracy.Second, the article explores competing views of institutional reform. It finds support for path-dependent 'mode-of-transition' approaches that postulate heightened agency to adopt new rules and reform institutions during uncertain transition periods. However, more sceptical cultural and institutional theorists are right insofar as the formal removal of authoritarian structures and personnel is easier than the informal transformation of state practices and of society's attitudes about state services. The article also finds that security (i.e., military, intelligence and police) reforms operate differently to judicial reforms, which were more difficult and were less tied to the country's peace process. The interaction of these reform processes with a post-war crime wave helps explain why international observers consider El Salvador's reforms a success story, but many Salvadoreans do not
Agency (philosophy) · Authoritarianism · Constitutionalism · Democracy · Democratization · Economic Justice · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Rule of law · Security Sector Reform · Skepticism · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science) · Transitional justice · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Politics and Society in Latin America
Generalized Violence as a Threat to Health and Well-Being
Producción bibliográfica sobre el Estado en revistas especializadas en América Latina
Beyond the 'failed state
Fortalecimiento de la independencia judicial en Centroamérica
Constructing Expertise
Counterinsurgency in El Salvador
La Mano Dura and the Violence of Civil Society in Bolivia
Gender and Attitudes Toward Justice System Bias in Central America
Right on Crime
Governing Security after War
The violence dynamics in public security
A Text Mining Approach to the Text Difficulty of Latin American Peace Agreement
Ethnic identity and attitudes toward state institutions
The Verdict is in
Struggling through the web of impunity—The Jorge Carpio Nicolle case
High-risk feminism in El Salvador
Community policing in Honduras
How Terrorist Groups End
Authoritarian Police in Democracy
The Peacebuilding Puzzle
Homicidal Ecologies
From War to Democracy
Non-state armed actors, war economies and postwar violence – Examining the connections
Varieties of post-civil war violence
War and Postwar Violence
Violencia, Estado de derecho y políticas punitivas en América Central
The Social Origins of Institutional Weakness and Change
Reforming to Avoid Reform
Shut In, Shut Out
To arrest insecurity
In the shadows of war and peace
Glass Half Full? The Peril and Potential of Highly Organized Violence
Knowledge Production, Framing and Criminal Justice Reform in Latin America
The sources of social violence in Latin America
Mano Dura
Undermining the Rule of Law
Criminal Violence and Democratization in Central America
Neoliberal Mystification
Microbus crashes and Coca-Cola cash
Gangster in guerilla face
A perfect storm of neglect and failure
| Unique citing works | 41 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,64 |
| Citation span | 2001 - 2025 (25) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 32 |