Democratization Through Peace: The Difficult Case of Guatemala

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs. AbstractsDemocratization Through Peace: The Difficult Case of Guatemala The Guatemalan peace process provides an excellent opportunity to revisit a number of discussions about political democratization and social justice in Latin America. It is the premise of this article that fulfillment of the peace accords, particularly on demilitarization, is the necessary precondition for full development of political democracy in Guatemala. The article first summarizes how, beyond ending the war, the peace process has contributed to Guatemala's democratization, and then analyzes the Guatemalan experience since the early 1980s as a means to address some of the broad theoretical debates. Demilitarization and Security in El Salvador and Guatemala: Convergences of Success and CrisisThe Salvadoran and Guatemalan cases correspond to a new model of public security that is widely shared across Latin America. The more localized processes of demilitarization in the two countries, moreover, appear to share a similar dynamic. In the midst of real reforms, however, the deterioration of public security as directly experienced by much of the population is cause for worry. An examination of the reforms established in the peace accords leads to an interpretation of these experiences in a comparative regional framework. Global Forces and Regime Change: Guatemala in the Central American ContextDrawing on theories of regime change, revolution, and democratization, this paper proposes a process theory to account for the 12 major regime transformations that have occurred in Central America since 1970. Political regimes, coherent systems of rule established among a coalition of dominant political actors, change when their prevailing political rules and their ruling coalitions undergo transformation. External forces are important to this process. The focal case is Guatemala and its prospects for democratic consolidation. AbstractsDemocratization Through Peace: The Difficult Case of Guatemala The Guatemalan peace process provides an excellent opportunity to revisit a number of discussions about political democratization and social justice in Latin America. It is the premise of this article that fulfillment of the peace accords, particularly on demilitarization, is the necessary precondition for full development of political democracy in Guatemala. The article first summarizes how, beyond ending the war, the peace process has contributed to Guatemala's democratization, and then analyzes the Guatemalan experience since the early 1980s a...

Transitions in Payments for Ecosystem Services in Guatemala: Embedding Forestry Incentives into Rural Development Value Systems

“…Beginning in the 16th century, indigenous populations were concentrated into less productive Highlands territories through Spanish and ladino lowland expropriation; they were forced into seasonal migrant labour, and yet retained some communal forests that were essential for fertilizer and firewood provision, as well as collective identity (Elías et al, 2009;Grandin, 2000;Lovell, 2005). The Peace Accords signed in the 1990s after Guatemala's 36-year Civil War increased the space available for active participation of civil society that had been repressed, but the Accords largely failed to address root causes of social conflict, such as radically unequal land tenure and a lack of recognition of indigenous territories and customs (Jonas, 2000a(Jonas, , 2000bRobinson, 2000). Created within this context, the forestry incentives are both popular and contentious.…”

“…The INAB and its first forestry incentive programme began during the peace process, which ended with the Peace Accords signed in 1996. Civil society, including indigenous organizations, that had been repressed during the Civil War began to re-emerge through participation in this process, paving the way for their continued involvement in forestry incentives (Jonas, 2000a(Jonas, , 2000bRobinson, 2000). The Accords also promoted decentralization (reflected in the structure of the INAB) by relying more heavily on municipal governments in an effort to curb corruption and avoid centralized control that had plagued the country.…”

The Role of Indigenous Peoples in Guatemalan Political Advertisements: An Ethnographic Content Analysis

“…However, a number of political scholars note that, in their initial phases, new democracies are often ''uneven,'' providing electoral democracy (an environment in which free and fair elections can take place), but not liberal democracy (an environment in which rule of law secures individual and minority rights) (Foweraker & Krznaric, 2002;O'Donnell, 1997). Jonas (2000) notes that, in the first few years after the accords were signed, Guatemalan democracy remained fragile, because the peace process did not bring with it social justice. Clearly, the rights of the country's Maya, Garifuna, and Xinca peoples of Guatemala can only be secured within a liberal democratic framework.…”

Resocializing Suffering

“…Things have indeed changed. Wide-ranging peace accords signed in 1996 brought a formal end to the conflict and were hailed with grand speeches full of grand promises (Jonas, 2000;Sieder, 1999). Viewed in abstract terms, violence seems to have subsided: the number of deaths and disappearances has decreased, villages are no longer massacred or destroyed, the average income of the country's indigenous Maya population has risen, and average education levels have increased.…”