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The article discusses the stasis of the economy, politics and government, and social conditions in Nicaragua despite the Nicaraguan Revolution in the 1980s. The author notes a relative lack of income among Nicaraguans, the gradual weakening of the revolutionary Sandinista political party, and the cult of personality surrounding politician Arnoldo Alemán. He also notes a the slow process of democratization in the country, political corruption, and government authoritarianism. The high rate of poverty in Nicaragua is also explained.

The article offers information on the rivalry between incumbent President Daniel Ortega and presidential candidate Herty Lewites of Nicaragua, both of whom are members of the Sandinista National Liberation Front. Unlike Daniel Ortega who is a vocal supporter of anti-Western leaders like Hugo Chavez, Hert Lewites is an advocate of center-left movement built on modernity and globalization.

Discusses a conceptual framework for categorizing the cultural production of media in Nicaragua. Significance of popular communications to the marginalized majority in the country; History of the government of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua from 1981 to 2001; Importance of environmental adult education and popular communications to participatory resource management as practiced by the Coastal Area Monitoring Project (CAMP-Lab); Details of a popular communications workshop participated in by CAMP-Lab members.

This article chronicles the state of politics in Nicaragua from 1996 to 2001. According to the author, Nicaragua began to receive international attention once again when Daniel Ortega announced his intention to run for the presidency in the 2001 election. He indicates that the return of a man with links to terrorists prompted a high level of diplomatic intervention. He also finds that the Liberals had to overcome their own track record during the campaign. Moreover, the author discusses the ability of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation to remain a power broker.

Analyses the current state of Nicaragua two years after the stunning defeat of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) by the United Nicaraguan Opposition (UNO). President Violeta Chamorro; Reasons for the national elections in 1990; The new Minister of the Presidency, Antonio Lacayo; Francisco Mayorga, the Chamorro government's chief economic planner and first Central Bank president; The Sandinista party; The economic crisis; More.

Explores the legitimacy of attitudes of American foreign service officers, newspaper editors, and the Catholic clergy in regards to their various justifications for resort to war allowed by the `just war' tradition in the context of the recent US controversy with Nicaragua. The `just war' theory; Discussion and results.

Presents a critique of poststructuralism and the idea of the end of ideology in Nicaragua. Includes the poststructuralist ideas of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe; Roots of political action and the emergence of social movements in existing relations of production; Nicaraguan revolution as an uneven program that attempted to win over capitalists while implementing policies for the working and peasant classes.

Examines the attempt by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) to create a socialist, liberal and participatory democratic political system in Nicaragua. FSLN's defeat in the 1989 Nicaraguan national election; FSLN's paternalism; Technobureaucracy; Emergence of a neo-liberal government; Utopian model for democratization.

Analyzes the construction of democracy as part of the broader process of carrying out a social revolution in Nicaragua. Effects of United States policy; Construction of democracy as an internal process of the Nicaraguan Revolution; Factors shaping Nicaraguan politics; Sandinista government's demonstration of a long-range commitment to developing a revolutionary pluralism.

Shows that the concepts of political pluralism and of the vanguard have been synthesized in Nicaraguan theory and practice in a manner that does violence to neither of them. Dynamism of contemporary Nicaraguan life; Notion of hegemony; Political pluralism as identified with a multiparty system; Discussions with representatives of the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional.

In this article, the author describes the origins of Sandinismo nationalism in a rich and detailed account of the conditions that spawned this revolutionary movement in Nicaragua. According to the author, it is the story of the struggles of General Augusto César Sandino against North American imperialism. He indicates that the fight of Sandino in the Nicaraguan mountains at the head of a handful of peasants and workers must be seen as the historical result of centuries of foreign domination in his country. He believes the political thought of Sandino is the result of what he thinks is nothing else than the result of his daily experience as leader in that war of resistance.

The article presents an interview with Nicaraguan Minister of Culture Ernesto Cardenal about culture and politics in the country. The interview begins with the relation between the cultural arts and the state during the dictatorship of the Somozas. Cardenal then explains the political culture and the possibilities for social criticism under the Somozas. In addition, Cardenal discusses how various ethnic groups integrated in cultural forms and society in the country.

In this article, the author looks at the practice of neoindigenismo in the Atlantic Coast region of Nicaragua. According to the author, the contras and U.S. groups such as the Indian Law Resource Center seek to twist the demands of the Atlantic Coast peoples for local autonomy into full-blown separatism and a justification for foreign intervention on behalf of the so-called Fourth-World indigenous communities. He indicates that regional autonomy and an end to the conflict between the government and the indigenous communities continue to be undermined by U.S. and contra efforts to promote armed conflict in the region.

This article provides an overview of the troubled relationship that has existed between the revolutionary regime and the various peoples who live in the Atlantic Coast region of Nicaragua. The author reminds that regional autonomy arrangements elsewhere in the world generally have been directed at resolving peacefully the conflicts that occur between minority communities and national governments that seek to exercise some authority over these communities. He indicates that regional autonomy and an end to the conflict between the government and the indigenous communities continue to be undermined by U.S. and contra efforts to promote armed conflict in the region.

In this article, the author explains the concept of Sandinista revolutionary morale. The author discusses the importance of the ideological dimension to the revolution as shown by the concept. He indicates the extent to which the Sandinistas believe that the revolutionary transformation of Nicaraguan society requires basic changes in the consciousness as well as the material conditions of the population. The author concludes that ideas, visions and myths are the vehicles for such consciousness and are prerequisites for action.

The article discusses the implications of the elections and U.S. intervention in Nicaragua. According to the author, the elections show the extent to which important sectors of the bourgeoisie have opposed the Sandinista regime and attempted to avoid the realization of the revolutionary project of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN). The article also demonstrates how this internal opposition to the revolutionary process is linked to the external forces of armed counterrevolution and the interventionist project of the U.S.

The article offers an analysis of democratization within the revolutionary political system of Nicaragua. Democratization involves the development of its revolutionary democratic state, popular participation in the revolutionary process, and pluralism that exists within the revolutionary political system. The authors show how the institutionalization of a revolutionary democracy will legitimize and strengthen the revolutionary project of national liberation and social transformation of Frente Sandinista de Liberación National (FSLN).

The article offers information on the development of capitalism in Nicaragua. It deciphers the historical development of this country's prerevolutionary economy, centering in particular on capitalist development and the contradictions and changes related with it. It is posed that in July 1979 the Nicaraguan Revolution obtained an agrarian structure identified by uneven development as well as widely circulated occurrence of poverty among the semiproletarianized rural population. This agrarian structure was molded by uneven capitalist development of the last thirty years.

The article offers information on the commercial policy of Nicaragua. It is posed that the Sandinista revolution which culminated in July 1979 with the downfall of the Somoza rule implicated high costs in loss of life and productive capacity of this country. The war greatly affected the industrial and agricultural production of the country, and about $250 million worth of equipment, factories, and inventories had been destructed and industrial organization was disrupted. The production of cotton, grains, and cattle was greatly affected too. As a solution, the Sandinistas have preferred for a mixed economy to solve the economic problems of the country.

An interview with Sergio Ramirez Mercado, one of the members of the governing junta of the revolutionary government of Nicaragua, is presented. When asked why the Nicaraguan revolution is called a Sandinista revolution, he states that one of the simplest ways to understand Sandinismo is to connect it with the historical confrontation that has existed between the U.S. and Nicaragua. He adds that there is no alternative for them but to maintain relations with the U.S.

An interview with members of the Nicaraguan National Assembly including Clemente Guido, Mauricio Díaz Dávila, Sixto Ulloa Doña and Rafael Solís Cerda is presented. Guido highlights the establishment of the National Assembly. Dávila explains the responsibility of the Constitutional Commission. Doña discusses the process of drafting a new constitution for Nicaragua. Cerda comments on the reorganization of the Sadinista Defense Committees (CDS).

The purpose 0f this article is to assess the usefulness of the theoretical insights generated by Theda Skocpol's theory of revolution in explaining the Iranian and Nicaraguan revolutions. The major contention of this study is that she has formulated a useful framework for understanding social revolutions. However, given the manner in which she links her analysis to specific historical context, her propositions need to be modified in order to be applied to more recent revolutionary cases. Her analysis can become more applicable to the contemporary world by (1) locating it in the changing balance of class forces occasioned by combined and uneven development of capitalism on a world scale, (2) developing an understanding of the internal dynamics of states in peripheral formations, and (3) introducing a broader understanding of ideology. These modifications will enable us to explain the changing coalescence of oppositional groupings as manifested in the changing importance of intermediate classes, and to single out a particular type of state as distinctively susceptible to revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author discusses an essay by Nicaraguan Vice President Sergio Ramírez on the origins of Sandinismo nationalism. According to the author, the approach used by Ramírez is especially worth noting precisely because this is not the sort of address to history that many have come to associate with Marxist analysis, and because it is equally obvious that in important ways the vice president situates himself in something that he would characterize as a larger Marxist tradition. He also indicates the effort of Ramírez to show the connections between General Augusto Cé Sandino and both the Hispanic and indigenous heroic traditions.

The author offers his thoughts on Richard Harris' article on workers' democracy. He argued that the commentary of Harris' underscores many of the basic misconceptions that have beset discussions on the transition to socialism, nature of the state, and the form of economic development of collectivist societies. He also said that the most effective aspect of the Nicaraguan Revolution is the revolutionary awareness of the masses.

The author offers his thoughts on James Petras' essay "Nicaragua: The Transition to a New Society" which was published in the Spring 1981 issue of the periodical. He said that Petras argued that the key to any conjunctural analysis of the postrevolutionary period in Nicaragua rests on the observation that the revolutionary forces control state power. The author said that the essay depicts that the Nicaraguan Revolution is far from being realized.

The article offers information on the resolution against U. S. intervention in Nicaragua which was proposed at the Tenth National Meeting of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) held in Washington, D. C. on March 4 to 6, 1982. The resolution maintained that the U. S. government, acting in contradiction to the provisions of the Neutrality Act, has allowed military training camps of Nicaraguan exiles in Florida and California. Relative to this, the association asks that the U. S. government should respect the sovereignty of the Nicaraguan people and nation, and the U. S. should close the training camps of Nicaraguan exiles within the U. S. pursuant to the provisions of the Neutrality Act.