THE SANDINISTA LEGACY
Haugaard, Lisa
A HISTORIAN LOOKING BACK ON TIlE SANDI- nists period many years hence may see it not just as the upheaval of a revolution, but also as a transition period nation-building and modernization.The...
...The second lesson concerns organizing strategies...
...Although somepolicies were dramatically changed by the late 1980s, with a groundbreaking autonomy agreement for the Atlantic Coast and individuaUand reform for the peasantry...
...7, No.3 (1991...
...Will grassroots movements continue to show independent ininatise...
...18/19 (Fall...
...The revolutionary movement marked the first surge of nationalism since Sandino took on the U.S...
...Some domestic economists have called for an alternative prugres- agenda, which is less dominated by the state and stresses small-scale agriculture and cottage industry...
...esn'w...
...And the)government's initial reluctance to carry out individual land reform alienated much of the peasantry and fueled the Contra war...
...2. For critiques of the party's relation to social movements...
...Vill the FSLN change its top-down leadershipstyle and emerge revitalized...
...Vickers, The Spider's Web...
...ed., "Nicaragua: Political Ec000m) of Revolution and I)efeat...
...see Jeffrey Gould's line study...
...For a comparison of social movements under the C'hamorro and Sandinista administretiorts, see Lisa Haugaard...
...Is a revolution worthwhile if all it delivers is endless war...
...the political damage had already been done...
...Marines in the 1920s.This national spirit is carried on by the Chamorro government, deeply obligated tothe United States butno longer spineless, The revolution also contributed to the development of strong unions, peasant movements, and other pulat and nongovernmental organizations so a once weak civil society...
...and the Sandinistas' electoral defeat, also left some useful, often bitter lessons for those who hope for rapid social change.t Above all, h) per inflation, a burgeoning black market and other economic ills showed that...
...No 3 (Fall 1990',: Rene Mendoza, "We Erred to Win...
...A HISTORIAN LOOKING BACK ON TIlE SANDI- nists period many years hence may see it not just as the upheaval of a revolution, but also as a transition period nation-building and modernization.The revolution displaced the obgarhy of' Somoza family and friends who controlled sizeable chunks of the national economy, and put land in the hands ofprcducthepeasanisratherthanlarge landowners often left it idle...
...vanguard structure, and the parry's heavy-handed relationship to social move-rnents.2 The third lesson reniins an open question...
...481.1990), Pierre LaRamEe and Erica Polakoff, "The Transformation ol the CDSs and the Breakdown ot Grassroots Ikmocracy in Revolutionary Nicaragua," Neis Political Srience...
...Feudal arrangements of tenant farming were largely (eliminated...
...Socially, the t'evolotion was accompanied by advances of women in the workplace and at home...
...The state began to be thought of as public) domain rather than personal ficfclom...
...1 (June 1990...
...9, No...
...John VT...
...Vilas, 'The Contribution of Political Econtimy and International Negotiation to the FaIl of the Sandinisra Goseniment," &is' Political Science...
...A top down, you-are with us-or ag4inst-us strategy served well to win an insurrectioa, but poorly as a method of governing, A failure to recognize very different regional and sectoral interests ledto conflict and rebellion...
...The revolutitin health care, education., and agricultural extension services to ar of the countryside where virtually no state presence had existed before...
...The adversary relations in the Chamorro period have strengthened civil society further, The experience of a decade in power...
...What Went Wrong," and George...
...nd will the United States permit such a course...
...Is it worth so many lives to stand up to the United States...
...Many support-era questioned the party's top-down...
...the legacy of the Sandinisra revolution is undetermined, and it matters sery deeply how certain quest ions arc answered in the next few yea...
...I. For varying imerpretations of the Sandinistas electoral defeat and critiques of their administration, see Carlos Vilas...
...In many respects...
...Inthe political realm, revglutionaiy and opposition forces laid the foundations for free elections and representative democracy...
...in a Lapiktlist world economy, governments ignore market forces at their peril, State investment, poce controls, selective subsidies...
...In and Out of Power: Organizing Dilemmas for Grassroots Movements in Nicaragua," Socialism and Dernacraq, Vol...
...Winter (99W...
...Soule...
...111 tou- 1990...
...The repressive National Guard was completely dismantled something thin would neverhave happened had the ituun'eerion led only to a change in top lea&rthip...
...although The party system is still weak and a 'winner-take all" mentality remains firmly rooted in society at large...
...To Leados Eqoals: Rum/Protest and PrAtt/cat Consciau'aze.cw in Chinantieqrt, N/caragua, 1912 1979(Chapel Hill' University of North carolina Press, I 990') and 'Notes on Peasant consciousness and Revolutionary Politics in Nicaragua 1955-1990" Radical H/stan Review, No...
...Will the conservative Chamorro government stay the course of compromise and reconciliation...
...and exchange rate management have been so bluntly-and excessively-used that they became counterproducthe policies, bringing abottt the need for the harsh austerity policies which undermined the (Sandinistas' popular base of support...
...18119 (Fall/WinIer 1990...
...In-ternanonal Journal of Pa/il/cal Economy, Vol...
...which only the people in each country in revolution can answer...
...XXIV...
...in Report an the Americas...
...The electoral defeat crystallized similar criticisms snthin the Sandinista Party...
Vol. 26 • December 1992 • No. 3
