Power in Transition: The Rise of Guatemala's Industrial Oligarchy, 1871-1994 - Hardcover

Dosal, Paul J

9780275951368: Power in Transition: The Rise of Guatemala's Industrial Oligarchy, 1871-1994

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0275951367 ISBN 13: 9780275951368

Publisher: Praeger Publishers Inc, 1995

Power in Transition examines the history of the economic elites who engineered Guatemala's return to constitutional rule in June, 1993. Dosal traces the changes in the country's elites from the period of the early industrial prioneers to today's neoliberal reformers. The inauguration of President Ramiro de Leon Carpio in June, 1993, forms part of a historical process whereby the Guatemalan military is transferring the regins of government to the oligarchy. During the military dictatorships of the last forty years, the leadership of the oligarchy passed from the coffee barons to a relatively progressive group of industrialists, financiers, and a new breed of agro-exporters. Power in Transition makes contemporary political dynamics understandable by examining the origins and evolution of today's modernizing oligarchy. Dosal traces the emergence of the industrialists during the Liberal era (1871-1944), explains their opposition to the reforms of the revolutionary era (1944-1954), and analyzes their political and economic development under military rule (1954-1985). When the military initiated the return to civilian rule in the 1980s, the industrialists emerged as the dominant faction of the oligarchy. This study will be of great interest to scholars and other researchers of Central American political and economic development.

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Synopsis:

Sorts out the web of elite families that held power for more than a century in the Central American country, noting their domination of government, industry, and society in general. Describes the foundations of the oligarchy in the later 19th century, the rise of the dictators, the politicization of the industrialists, revolution and reaction, mode

About the Author:

PAUL J. DOSAL is Associate Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts. He has published numerous articles as well as one earlier book, Doing Business With the Dictators.

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