State–Society Relations in Guatemala

This volume adopts a comparative politics model in order to analyze and evaluate pressing issues in Guatemala, including a floundering economy, backsliding in the military's civilianization, retreats in state power and peacemaking commitments, autocratization, and the repression of social movements.

By embedding Guatemala in recent conceptual and theoretical work in comparative politics and political economy, this volume advances knowledge about country’s politics, economy, and state-society interactions. The contributors examine the stubborn realities and challenges afflicting Guatemala during the post-Peace-Accords-era across the following subjects: the state, subnational governance, state-building, peacebuilding, economic structure and dynamics, social movements, civil-military relations, military coup dynamics, varieties of capitalism, corruption, and the level of democracy. The book deliberately avoids the perils of parochialism by placing the country within larger scholarly debates and paradigms.

1. Guatemala’s Protracted Inchoate Stateness

2. The Coup Trap in Guatemala

3. Civil-Military Relations: Is the Guatemalan Military a Democratic Institution?

4. A Durable but Impoverished Peace: Evaluating 25 Years of Peacebuilding in Guatemala

5. Subnational Authoritarianism in Guatemala: A Consolidated Phenomenon

6. Social Movements and Contention in Guatemala: Tarrow’s Power in Movement Reexamined

7. Economic Growth and the Twilight of Neoliberalism in Guatemala

8. Is Guatemalan Capitalism Hierarchical?

9. Corruption as a Political Problem in Guatemala: Incentives and Institutions

10. Understanding the Level and Fate of Democracy in Guatemala: Actor-centered Theory