ABSTRACT
Central America's crises over the latter half of the twentieth century arose from several factors: centuries of socioeconomic formation; rapid economic growth in the 1960s followed by a sharp downturn in the mid-1970s; elite and government intransigence in the face of mobilization driven by the economic crisis; and Cold War politics and the behavior of the United States. Central America provides a remarkable laboratory for the study of democratic transition because it experienced several types of regime change. The chapter considers Central America's prospects for democratic consolidation. Most theories on this subject focus on domestic considerations that promote or impede consolidation. The chapter examines domestic components of democratic consolidation—both in theory and in the concrete reality of Central America in the 2010s. It focuses on Central America's transformed political regimes, but must also emphasize how the region's economies changed in the 1980s and 1990s in ways that will shape Central America's future for decades to come.
