Citation

Holden RH. J. Lat. Am. Stud. 1996; 28(2): 435-459.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/S0022216X00013067

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This analysis of the historically high level of state-sponsored violence in Central America, typically explained in terms of 'authoritarianism' or 'civil-military relations', argues for according it a more independent research status. Three historic dimensions of state-sponsored violence - the mechanisms by which caudillo violence was displaced upward in the late 19th century, the level of subaltern collaboration with the agents of state violence as a function of clientelist politics, and the intrusion of US military power after 1940 - are proposed. The implications for the utility of political culture theory and for a reevaluation of the literature on civil-military relations are developed.

Language: en