Forging democracy from below : contested transitions in South Africa and El Salvador
Forging Democracy from Below, first published in 2000, shows how popular mobilization by poor and working class people in El Salvador and South Africa forced the powerful, anti-democratic elites of these countries to abandon their tools of political repression, and why a durable settlement and democratic government were the result.
xxiii, 247 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
9780521783231, 9780521788878, 0521783232, 0521788870
122974373
Introduction; 1. From civil war to democracy: improbable transitions in oligarchic societies; Part I. El Salvador's Path to Democracy: 2. From conservative modernization to civil war; 3. The structural foundation of a pact: the transformation of elite interests; 4. Negotiating a democratic transition to end civil war; Part II. From Racial Oligarchy to Pluralist Democracy in South Africa: 5. Apartheid, conservative modernization, and resistance; 6. The challenge to elite economic interests; 7. From recalcitrance to compromise; Conclusion; 8. The insurgent path to democracy in oligarchic societies; Epilogue: the legacy of democracy forged from below.