Taking power in Nicaragua in 1979 as a revolutionary party, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) was willing to put its fate in the hands of the Nicaraguan people twice, in 1984 and 1990. The party wrote a democratic constitution and then, remarkably, accepted the decision of the majority by relinquishing power upon its defeat in the 1990 election.
The Many Faces of Sandinista Democracy explores the conflicts involving different visions of political and economic democracy, as well as new radical thought on participatory democracy. The latter addresses the problems popular organizations encountered as they moved from subservience to the FSLN in the 1980s to the liberating but disorientating electoral defeat of 1990. Up until the moment of defeat, the Sandinistas saw themselves as the true vanguard of the Nicaraguan people, able to submit themselves to free elections, because they felt they truly represented the general will of the people.
Dr. Hoyt brings to an international audience for the first time a study of the ideas of several Nicaraguan thinkers. She examines the conflicts surrounding the development of ideas within the FSLN, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of its rare combination of democratic and vanguard principles.
Katherine Hoyt lived for eighteen years in Latin America, sixteen of them in Nicaragua. She worked for the Sandinista government, ultimately as a translator for the national legislative body. She currently is co-director of the Nicaraguan Network Education Fund in Washington, D.C. Hoyt is a graduate of Vassar College and has a Ph.D. in political science from Rutgers University. More info →
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978-0-89680-197-4
Retail price: $28.95,
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Release date: July 1997
240 pages
Rights: World
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978-0-89680-408-1
Release date: July 1997
240 pages
Rights: World
Theory in the Practice of the Nicaraguan Revolution
By Bruce E. Wright
Even in the period following the electoral defeat of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in 1990, the revolution of 1979 continues to have a profound effect on the political economy of Nicaragua.
Business and Economics · Public Policy · History | Modern | 20th Century · International Studies · Political Science · Latin American History · History · Labor History · Americas · Central America · Nicaragua · Sandinistas · Latin American Studies
Beyond the Barricades
Nicaragua and the Struggle for the Sandinista Press, 1979–1998
By Adam Jones
Throughout the 1980s, Barricada, the official daily newspaper of the ruling Sandinista Front, played the standard role of a party organ, seeking the mobilize the Nicaraguan public to support the revolutionary agenda. Beyond the Barricades, however, reveals a story that is both more intriguing and much more complex.
History | Latin America | Central America · Journalism · Nicaragua · Latin American Studies · Sandinistas
Peasants in Arms
War and Peace in the Mountains of Nicaragua, 1979–1994
By Lynn Horton
Drawing on testimonies from contra collaborators and ex-combatants, as well as pro-Sandinista peasants, this book presents a dynamic account of the growing divisions between peasants from the area of Quilalí who took up arms in defense of revolutionary programs and ideals such as land reform and equality and those who opposed the FSLN.Peasants
Latin American History · Latin American Studies · Political Science · International Studies · History · Violence in Society · Nicaragua · Central America · Americas
