Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T10:44:30.344Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Civil Society in a Postwar Period: Labor in the Salvadoran Democratic Transition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2022

Tracy Fitzsimmons  and
Mark Anner
Tracy Fitzsimmons
Affiliation:
University of Redlands
Mark Anner
Affiliation:
Cornell University
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This research note seeks to offer some resolution to the theoretical disagreements over how democratization affects civil society, specifically in a transition toward democracy that occurs through pacted settlements of an armed internal conflict. Using a comparative study over time of the labor movement in El Salvador, the authors demonstrate that while unions of the political center and left have weakened since the signing of the Salvadoran Peace Accords, independent labor groups show higher levels of organizing and right-leaning unions have maintained nearly constant levels of organizing. But the labor movement has become atomized because unions have been unable to redefine their once-common political goals to adopt other unified stances in the postwar period. The data show that the unions that have relinquished excessively politicized stances or never claimed them are the ones that survive and sometimes grow in the postwar environment. These findings have implications for the nature of the emerging Salvadoran democracy and the economic well-being of its citizens.

Type
Research Reports and Notes
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , 1999 , pp. 103 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

We are grateful to Philippe Schmitter, Terry Lynn Karl, James G. March, Isabel Vêlez, and Charles T. Call for their comments on earlier drafts or sections and to the anonymous LARR reviewers for their very helpful suggestions. Research funding was provided by the University of Redlands, the Center for Latin American Studies at Stanford University, and the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation. A preliminary version was presented to the Latin American Studies Association in Guadalajara, Mexico, 17-19 April 1997.

References

agüero, felipe 1992 “The Military and the Limits to Democratization in South America.” In main-warning, o'donnell, and valenzuela 1992, 153–98.Google Scholar
anner, mark, and quinteros, carolina 1994 “El sindicalismo salvadoreño en la postguerra: Reflexiones preliminares.” Paper presented to the Congreso Centroamericano de Sociología, San Salvador, 20-22 July.Google Scholar
arriola palomares, joaquin 1994 “Economía y sindicalismo significado económico del marco de relaciones laborales salvadoreños.” Estudios Centroamericanos (Sept. 1994):901–17.Google Scholar
arriola palomares, joaquin, and alvarado, jose antonio candray 1994 Derechos prohibidos: Negociación colectiva y sindicatos en El Salvador. Serie Documentos de Investigación. San Salvador: UCA Editores.Google Scholar
bollinger, william 1987 “El Salvador.” In Latin American Labor Organizations, edited by Greenfield, Gerald Michael and Maram, Sheldon L., 307–88. New York: Greenwood.Google Scholar
call, charles t. 1998 “From Soldiers to Cops: Demilitarization, Democratization, and the New Civilian Policing in Latin America and the Caribbean.” Ph.D. diss., Stanford University.Google Scholar
canel, eduardo 1992 “Democratization and the Decline of Urban Social Movements in Uruguay: A Political-Institutional Account.” In escobar and alvarez 1992, 276–90.Google Scholar
cardoso, ruth 1992 “Popular Movements in the Context of the Consolidation of Democracy in Brazil.” In escobar and alvarez 1992, 291–302.Google Scholar
carroll, glen 1984 “Organizational Ecology.” Annual Review of Sociology, no. 10:71–93.Google Scholar
diamond, larry 1996 “Toward Democratic Consolidation.” In The Global Resurgence of Democracy, edited by Diamond, Larry and Plattner, Marc F., 227–40. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
escobar, arturo, and alvarez, sonia, eds. 1992 The Making of Social Movements in Latin America: Identity, Strategy, and Democracy. Boulder, Colo.: Westview.Google Scholar
fitzsimmons, tracy 1995 “Paradoxes of Participation: Organizations and Democratization in Latin America.” Ph.D. diss., Stanford University.Google Scholar
foley, michael w. 1996 “Laying the Groundwork: The Struggle for Civil Society in El Salvador.” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 38, no. 2 (Spring):67–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
gonzalez, victor 1991 Las organizaciones no-gubernamentales, nueva expresión de la sociedad civil salvadoreña: Un estudio histórico y analítico de la ONGs en la década de los ochenta. San Salvador: Programa Regional de Investigación sobre El Salvador.Google Scholar
guido bejar, rafael 1995 “La crisis y el movimiento sindical en la transición salvadoreña.” Realidades, no. 40 (Nov.-Dec.): 901–1011Google Scholar
hannan, michael t., and freeman, john 1977 “The Population Ecology of Organizations.” American Journal of Sociology 82, no. 5 (Mar.):929–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
huntington, samuel 1968 Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
karl, terry lynn 1986 “Imposing Consent? Electoralism vs. Democratization in El Salvador.” In Elections and Democratization in Latin America, 1980-1985, edited by Drake, Paul W. and Silva, Eduardo, 9–36. San Diego: Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, and Institute of the Americas.Google Scholar
karl, terry lynn 1987 “Petroleum and Political Pacts: The Transition to Democracy in Venezuela.” LARR 22, no. 1:63–94.Google Scholar
karl, terry lynn 1992 “Negotiated Revolution.” Foreign Affairs 71, no. 2 (Spring):147–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
karl, terry, maphai, vincent, and zamora, ruben n.d. “War Transitions: Ending Armed Conflict and Starting Democracy in Uncivil Societies.” Manuscript, 1996.Google Scholar
lechner, norbert 1985 “Pacto social nos processos de democratização: A experiência latinoamericana.” Novos Estudos, no. 13:29–44.Google Scholar
linz, juan j., and stepan, alfred 1996 Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
lungo, mario 1987 La lucha de las masas en El Salvador. San Salvador: UCA Editores.Google Scholar
mainwaring, scott, o'donnell, guillermo, and valenzuela, j. samuel, eds. 1992 Issues in Democratic Consolidation: The New South American Democracies in Comparative Perspective. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
march, james 1988 Decisions and Organizations. Cambridge: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
menjivar, rafael 1979 Formación y lucha del proletariado industrial salvadoreño. San Salvador: UCA Editores.Google Scholar
molina arvalo, jose ernesto 1988 “El movimiento sindical y su proceso de politización en El Salvador, 1974-1980.” Licenciatura thesis, Universidad de El Salvador.Google Scholar
montgomery, tommie sue 1995 Revolution in El Salvador: From Civil Strife to Civil Peace. Second edition. Boulder, Colo.: Westview.Google Scholar
munck, gerardo 1993 “Beyond Electoralism in El Salvador: Conflict Resolution through Negotiated Compromise.” Third World Quarterly 14, no. 1 (Apr.):75–93.Google Scholar
norton, chris 1985 “Build and Destroy.” NACLA (Nov.-Dec.):26–36.Google Scholar
o'donnell, guillermo, and schmitter, philippe 1986 Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
pateman, carole 1970 Participation and Democratic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
stahler-sholk, richard 1994 “El Salvador's Negotiated Transition: From Low-Intensity Conflict to Low-Intensity Democracy.” Journal of Interamerican Studies 36, no. 4 (Winter): 1–60.Google Scholar
united nations 1992 El Salvador Agreements: The Path to Peace. San Salvador: Office of Public Information, UN Observer Mission in El Salvador.Google Scholar
vilas, carlos m. 1996 “Prospects for Democratisation in a Post-Revolutionary Setting: Central America.” Journal of Latin American Studies 28, pt. 2 (May):461–503.Google Scholar
villalobos, joaquin 1992 Una revolución en la Izquierda para una revolución democrática. San Salvador: Arcoiris.Google Scholar