ABSTRACT
The Reagan administration has sought to export democracy through the promotion of elections in Central America, and it actually began to claim outright success in this endeavor with the 1984 victory of Jose Napoleon Duarte in El Salvador. But such claims have been widely disputed in political and academic circles. The decision to hold elections in El Salvador in 1982 during a civil war was rooted primarily in a foreign policy crisis in the United States and only secondarily in events taking place in El Salvador. Despite strong repudiation of the bloody regime by most European and Latin American countries, President Jimmy Carter's administration supported the Salvadoran military but insisted that some degree of reform accompany increased assistance. Criticisms of administration policy dwindled in the wake of media enthusiasm over lines of voters, and Congress increased total aid to El Salvador by almost 100 percent. While electoral pressures inside El Salvador intensified, demands from the United States temporarily diminished.
