Salvadoran Democracy

Readers of this blog will be interested to read David Holiday's article at this link in the February 2005 issue of Current History. David reviews the positives and negatives of the Salvadoran electoral process ushered in by the UN-mediated peace accords of 1992. Certainly we should not downplay the significance of three straight peaceful presidential elections, but neither should we portray the Salvadoran experience as a successful example of US efforts to build a model democracy out of a civil war/insurgency.

The opening quote to David Holiday's article states:

“In the immediate aftermath of the 1992 peace accords, El Salvador was cited frequently by the United Nations and even the World Bank as a country that, with the international community’s help, effectively managed its transition from civil war to peace and reconciliation. Thirteen years later, only the US government views the Salvadoran model so favorably.”