Revolution and Democracy in Nicaragua
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4500850 |
|---|---|
| Authors | José Luis Coraggio, George Irvin |
| Year | 1985 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 23-38 |
| Publication date | 1985-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Latin American Perspectives (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0094-582X • E-ISSN: 1552-678X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0094582x8501200202 |
| OpenAlex | W2011737091 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 2 |
On November 4, 1984, Nicaragua went to the polls to elect a new president, vice president, and national assembly. The general elections in Nicaragua have attracted considerable international response ranging from the predictable scepticism of the Reagan administration to cautious optimism on the part of most European and Latin American leaders and support from the socialist international. All see elections as the touchstone of democratic progress, although the rules of evidence concerning what counts as free are bent to serve particular interests. Indeed, the U.S. administration's campaign to discredit the elections is already in full swing. That such maneuvers are part of the common currency of international politics is well known and need not be explained here. What is more worrying is the simple, unproblematic manner in which many sympathetic observers of the Nicaraguan Revolution tend to conflate elections with democracy. To be sure the institutionalization of democracy, of which elections are one ingredient, raises fundamental (and often highly emotional) issues of theory and practice, most particularly under conditions of Third World revolutionary leadership. Sections of both the Left and the Right share this unproblematic approach. In reality, of course, social projects emerge from the dialectic between revolutionary leaders, the class (or classes) they represent, and external political forces. Indeed, understanding the impact of external forces on internal alliances is often just as important as understanding internal alliances themselves, and certainly more important than looking into revolutionary minds. But if one is
Democracy · Democratic revolution · Epistemology · Foreign policy · Law and economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Skepticism · Sociology · International Development and Aid · Law · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion · World Systems and Global Transformations
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,13 |
| Citation span | 1986 - 2021 (36) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |