Synopses & Reviews
In this groundbreaking study, Janusz Bugajski evaluates the impact of Sandinista political, economic, and social programs. The book focuses on the confrontations between the regime and Nicaragua's rural population, particularly the Ladino peasantry and the Indian and black indigenous minorities of the Atlantic coast region. The book concentrates on the Sandinista's agrarian strategies in order to distinguish between short-term policies and long-term programs. It addresses the question of whether any durable and novel ideological, political, and economic elements have been introduced in Nicaragua in terms of Marxist-Leninist models of state socialism--expecially vis-a-vis peasantry and the country's ethnic minorities.
Upon seizing power in July 1979, the Sandinistas embarked on a socialist transformation of Nicaraguan society. This book concludes that in confronting major internal and external obstacles, the regime opted for a degree of economic flexibility without abandoning its long-term political objectives. The regime's Leninist political arrangements, claims Bugajski, were therefore combined with a quasi-Communist economic program. The Sandinistas captured and remodeled all levers of social control, including the state apparatus, the armed forces, and the security network, and fortified those mechanisms that could most effectively extend their domination. But in order to minimize economic dislocation, political opposition, and social unrest, to uphold productivity, to obtain vital agro-export revenues, and to prevent international isolation, Managua implemented a transitory mixed economy and continued to tolerate a politically weakened private sector.
Synopsis
"An important and revealing study of how power functions in postrevolutionary Nicaragua and why the nature of Nicaraguan society continues to frustrate the calculated attempt by the Leninist Sandinistas to transform it." Douglas W. Payne Director of Hemispheric Studies Freedom House
Synopsis
"An important and revealing study of how power functions in postrevolutionary Nicaragua and why the nature of Nicaraguan society continues to frustrate the calculated attempt by the Leninist Sandinistas to transform it." Douglas W. Payne Director of Hemispheric Studies Freedom House "Bugajski's cogent and timely analysis of the Sandinista movement is useful reading for policymakers and analysts alike. His perceptive evaluation of the goals and strategies of the Sandinista Front makes an important contribution to the literature on Third World `Socialist-oriented regimes'." Jiri Valenta Director, Institute for Soviet and East European Studies University of Miami Coeditor, Conflict in Nicaragua: A Multidimensional Perspective
Synopsis
te the calculated attempt by the Leninist Sandinistas to transform it." Douglas W. Payne Director of Hemispheric Studies Freedom House
About the Author
JANUSZ BUGAJSKI is Director of the East European Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He has served as a consultant for both government and private organizations and has lectured at numerous American and European universities. He chairs the South-Central Europe area studies program at the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State, and is the author or editor of several books on the region.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction: A Brief Overview of Marxism-Leninism
Sandinismo: History and Ideology
Sandinismo: The Levers of Control
Sandinista Policies: The Peasantry
Sandinista Policies: Indigenous Peoples
Sandinistas and Contras
Index