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Coffee and Power: Revolution and the Rise of Democracy in Central America
Coffee and Power Revolution and the Rise of Democracy in Central America Author:Jeffery M. Paige In the revolutionary decade between 1979 and 1992, it would have been difficult to find three political systems as different as death-squad-dominated El Salvador, peaceful social-democratic Costa Rica, and revolutionary Sandinista Nicaragua. Yet when the fighting ended, all three had found a common destination in democracy and free markets.... more » In a landmark book which fuses political economy and cultural analysis, Jeffery Paige shows that both the divergent political histories and their convergent outcome were shaped by a single commodity: coffee. His analysis challenges current theories of dictatorship and democracy, and shows that revolution in Central America is deeply rooted in the histories of the coffee elites.« less