Legacies of Liberalism

James Mahoney is an assistant professor of sociology at Brown University.

• List of Figures, Maps, and TablesPrefacePart I: IntroductionChapter 1. Explaining Political Development in Central AmericaChapter 2. The Liberal Reform Period and Its Legacies: A Conceptual FrameworkPart II: Antecedent ConditionsChapter 3. Liberals and Conservatives Before the Reform Period Chapter 4. Routes to Liberal Political DominancePart III: The Liberal Reform PeriodChapter 5. Radical Liberalism: Guatemala and El Salvador Chapter 6. Reformist Liberalism: Costa RicaChapter 7. Aborted Liberalism: Honduras and NicaraguaPart IV: Legacies of the Liberal Reform PeriodChapter 8. Aftermath: Reactions to the Liberal ReformChapter 9. Regime Heritage: Military Authoritarianism, Democracy, and Traditional DictatorshipChapter 10. Conclusion: Path Dependence and Political ChangeNotesSelect Bibliography of Works on Central American Politics and HistoryIndex

Few scholars are bold enough to try to explain 150 years of political development in five different countries, and even fewer succeed at such an ambitious undertaking. James Mahoney admirably pulls off such a feat in his masterful study of post independence political evolution in Central America... His work is to be commended not only as a seminal study of Central American politics, but also as a major contribution to scholarly understanding of critical junctures and path-dependent political development. -- Kenneth M. Roberts Perspectives on Politics A clearly written and insightful monograph, sociologists interested in comparative history will find this a rewarding read... Legacies of Liberalism makes an important contribution to the literature on national development, Latin American political economy, and comparative historical theory. -- William Canak Social Forces 2003 [Mahoney's] comparative historical analysis of political development in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua makes a number of significant contributions. His systematic cross-case comparison is impressive in its breadth. -- Juliet Hooker Governance 2004 A provocative work of historical sociology... Mahoney's book is built around a bold thesis about nineteenth-century economic liberalism as the region's 'critical [historical] juncture.' -- Paul Gootenberg Latin American Research Review 2004