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Coffee and Power: Revolution and the Rise of Democracy in Central America
In the revolutionary decade between 1979 and 1992, it would have been difficult to find three political systems as different as death-squad-dominated El Salvador, peaceful social-democratic Costa Rica, and revolutionary Sandinista Nicaragua. Yet when the fighting was finally ended by a peace plan initiated by Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias, all three had found a common destination in democracy and free markets. To explain this extraordinary turn of events is the task of this landmark book, which fuses political economy and cultural analysis.
Both the divergent political histories and their convergent outcome were shaped by a single commodity that has dominated these export economies from the nineteenth century to the present--coffee. Jeffery Paige shows that the crises of the 1980s had their roots in the economic and political crises of the 1930s, when the revolutionary left challenged the ruling coffee elites of all three countries. He interweaves and compares the history, economics, and class structures of the three countries, thus clarifying the course of recent struggles. The heart of the book is his conversations with sixty-two leaders of fifty-eight elite dynasties, who for the first time tell their own stories of the experience of Central American revolution.
Paige's analysis challenges not only Barrington Moore's influential theory of dictatorship and democracy but also contemporary approaches to "transitions to democracy." It also shows that a focus on either political economy or culture alone cannot account for the transformation of elite ideology, and that revolution in Central America is deeply rooted in the personal, familial, and class histories of the coffee elites.
Both the divergent political histories and their convergent outcome were shaped by a single commodity that has dominated these export economies from the nineteenth century to the present--coffee. Jeffery Paige shows that the crises of the 1980s had their roots in the economic and political crises of the 1930s, when the revolutionary left challenged the ruling coffee elites of all three countries. He interweaves and compares the history, economics, and class structures of the three countries, thus clarifying the course of recent struggles. The heart of the book is his conversations with sixty-two leaders of fifty-eight elite dynasties, who for the first time tell their own stories of the experience of Central American revolution.
Paige's analysis challenges not only Barrington Moore's influential theory of dictatorship and democracy but also contemporary approaches to "transitions to democracy." It also shows that a focus on either political economy or culture alone cannot account for the transformation of elite ideology, and that revolution in Central America is deeply rooted in the personal, familial, and class histories of the coffee elites.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 9, 2016
This is NOT an easy read! The reason is that Jeffrey Paige does two different things in this book, while comparing and contrasting three different Central American countries (El Salvador, Costa Rica and Nicaragua), with an occasional reference to a fourth on, Guatemala. One of these is to compile the political history of the countries from 1929 through the 1970, on the basis of a wide variety of sources (including interviews), with special emphasis on how each of these histories has been shaped by the coffee industry. The other is to develop, from an analysis of this material (including the interviews), some general principles regarding what makes it possible for a country to evolve into at an equitable and thriving peaceful democratic society, and in particular, the role of armed conflict and insurrection as a means of getting there. So, for example, in the case of El Salvador, given the importance of the coffee industry in shaping the country and the attitudes of the elites that controls that industry, a democracy may not come "naturally" and insurrection may be necessary.
February 12, 2016
Growing, harvesting, processing and exporting coffee has been the main economic life of Central America for the past one hundred years. The families who make up the “coffee elite” control much of the financial power and social organization of El Salvador, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
Those nations were in very different political and economic situations at the end of the last century. Costa Rica, the country that never really hits the headlines, is a social democracy with a functioning civil society, a decent social safety net for its citizens, particularly when compared to other countries with similar population and economic output. Nicaragua, the poorest country in Central America and the second poorest in the hemisphere, is retreating from its attempts at revolutionary nationalism. El Salvador is home of the death squads of Roberto D'Aubuisson and his ARENA party and was the first place where “to disappear” was used as a transitive verb as in “they disappeared him”. It was under military rule from 1931 to 1979.
Jeffrey M. Paige was invited to teach and do research by Segundo Montes, the chairman of the sociology faculty at the University of Central America located in San Salvador. A month before his arrival, Montes and his Jesuit colleagues at the university were murdered at the Jesuit residence on orders from the high command of the San Salvador military. While there is no direct evidence that the generals consulted with their allies in the upper classes or the government it was assumed at the time that the army was doing the bidding of their political and economic masters since this had been the case in scores of high profile extra-judicial murders throughout the region. Paige interviewed plantation owners and financiers thinking that the same people might have ordered the killing.
The coffee elite controlled the land where coffee was grown and the people who produced it. In Nicaragua and El Salvador the elites expropriated the fruits of the labor of the peasants and workers through systems of debt peonage, one sided labor contacts and authority over their daily lives. Trade union organizers were intimidated or killed, political parties were outlawed or severely restricted and the army was used to enforce civil contracts.
Paige found a lot of class friction among the elites: landowners who controlled growing and harvesting were in conflict with the agro-industrial barons who ran the processing and export side of the coffee business. The processors were “progressive”—they were interested in modernizing their operations, using mechanization to replace human labor wherever possible while the “reactionary” growers wanted to continue the traditional methods that necessitated a large, mobile and hungry workforce. There were national differences as well. El Salvador was efficient and forward looking and produced higher yields per acre with a streamlined export system. Nicaragua was slow to adopt any new technology; the elites there were satisfied with lower but cheaper production.
One of the main strengths of “Coffee and Power” is the meticulous analysis of the leading families in each country that have owned the means of production since, in some cases, the nationalist revolutions of the 1820s and 1830s. Paige has contributed a new way of looking at Central America as the nations there struggle toward durable popular rule.
Those nations were in very different political and economic situations at the end of the last century. Costa Rica, the country that never really hits the headlines, is a social democracy with a functioning civil society, a decent social safety net for its citizens, particularly when compared to other countries with similar population and economic output. Nicaragua, the poorest country in Central America and the second poorest in the hemisphere, is retreating from its attempts at revolutionary nationalism. El Salvador is home of the death squads of Roberto D'Aubuisson and his ARENA party and was the first place where “to disappear” was used as a transitive verb as in “they disappeared him”. It was under military rule from 1931 to 1979.
Jeffrey M. Paige was invited to teach and do research by Segundo Montes, the chairman of the sociology faculty at the University of Central America located in San Salvador. A month before his arrival, Montes and his Jesuit colleagues at the university were murdered at the Jesuit residence on orders from the high command of the San Salvador military. While there is no direct evidence that the generals consulted with their allies in the upper classes or the government it was assumed at the time that the army was doing the bidding of their political and economic masters since this had been the case in scores of high profile extra-judicial murders throughout the region. Paige interviewed plantation owners and financiers thinking that the same people might have ordered the killing.
The coffee elite controlled the land where coffee was grown and the people who produced it. In Nicaragua and El Salvador the elites expropriated the fruits of the labor of the peasants and workers through systems of debt peonage, one sided labor contacts and authority over their daily lives. Trade union organizers were intimidated or killed, political parties were outlawed or severely restricted and the army was used to enforce civil contracts.
Paige found a lot of class friction among the elites: landowners who controlled growing and harvesting were in conflict with the agro-industrial barons who ran the processing and export side of the coffee business. The processors were “progressive”—they were interested in modernizing their operations, using mechanization to replace human labor wherever possible while the “reactionary” growers wanted to continue the traditional methods that necessitated a large, mobile and hungry workforce. There were national differences as well. El Salvador was efficient and forward looking and produced higher yields per acre with a streamlined export system. Nicaragua was slow to adopt any new technology; the elites there were satisfied with lower but cheaper production.
One of the main strengths of “Coffee and Power” is the meticulous analysis of the leading families in each country that have owned the means of production since, in some cases, the nationalist revolutions of the 1820s and 1830s. Paige has contributed a new way of looking at Central America as the nations there struggle toward durable popular rule.
November 9, 2011
Jeffrey Paige is an excellent sociologist who provides an in-depth look at three countries in Central America. Honduras, Costa Rica and El Salvador are all explored throughout this book. There are occasional references to Guatemala but overall the other three are considered because their development has similarities. While they are different in the way they developed economically and socially they came form similar backgrounds. Similar governments formed in all three according to Paige and the effects of this were to drive these countries into a relationship where elites hold power. The social elites of the coffee producers provide an interesting case study to follow. They provide the driving force for dictatorships and while the Depression of 1929 gives fuel to the communist fire the elites retain a wide range of control. El Salvador is shown to be both a civil war and a terrorist problem that must be dealt with by resolution of local politics. Nicaragua is shown through the Somoza regime which grew out of the US marine intervention, dollar diplomacy and our support of the conservatives in that country. The sociological study comes across as scattered at times but in the end provides a useful analysis when considering the disparity in incomes throughout Central America. This book is not for beginners and historians should use it carefully. For those in sociology it is a very useful study filled with many primary accounts.
October 8, 2013
Since I'm not accustomed to reading books on political / economic history, this was slow reading. I'm actually surprised that I got past the first chapter, which was kind of like reading the Bible from the beginning, with all of the "begots" of the oligarchy of El Salvador. Nonetheless, it did help me understand better the differing histories and dynamics of El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica (and to a limited extent Guatemala.) Since it mostly concentrated on the role of large coffee producers and processors in the respective countries, there are many complications that are left out. Since I am more familiar with Costa Rica I am aware of how it is simplified, but still the observations made about Costa Rica seem to be valid and I learned a lot about the differences of the countries. I skipped over the last chapter which was drawing general political conclusions. (It seems to me that there are way too many individual complexities to draw general conclusions.)
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April 1, 2023HD9199 C82 P35 1997 Steenbock Library (!)
July 29, 2010
I read this book for a class, and I am going to reread it this summer
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews