ABSTRACT
This chapter explains interacting domestic and external forces that shape the region. Economic problems cause unrest and hamper equitable development. The region’s poor resources, inequality, and dependent position in the global economy retard its peoples’ economic prospects. Drawing upon factors from the external environment, we link domestic political and economic structures and processes to the nature of political regimes. When revolutionary movements arose in the 1970s, Central American regimes either reformed or experienced rebellions and even revolution. Eventually pressures for change from citizens’ movements and from such powerful external actors as the United States led local elites to democratize as a solution to violence. Waning US and other outside actors’ encouragement of and weak domestic elite’s commitment to democracy, infiltration of criminal enterprises, and economic stagnation have undermined democracy since 2010, especially in Honduras and Nicaragua.
