ABSTRACT
Nicaragua's efforts to democratize took shape with the struggles to overthrow dictator Anastasio Somoza which culminated successfully in 1979 with the revolutionary upheaval led by the Sandinista movement which represented a hopeful change towards democratization. The peace agreement gradually moved the Nicaraguan conflict from the military to the political sector. International actors also supported the formation of a national base of Nicaraguan election observers. The international mobilization during the 1987 to 1989 peace negotiations and over the 1990 elections is explicit cases of international pressures to push forward a country to democratize. Four important objectives were necessary to building institutional capacity for democratic governance. These are public employees had to be depoliticized and retrained; the state needed to be demilitarized and made into a smaller civilian institution; government had to become transparent and accountable; and state institutions had to be modernized. The size of the state bureaucracy gradually reduced as part of its demilitarization.
