The persistence of oligarchic rule in El Salvador: Neoliberal transformation, and the retrenchment of privilege and inequality in the post-civil war period

Twenty years after the signing of the Peace Accords that marked the end of a 12-year-long armed conflict (1980-1992), El Salvador appears to be struggling between an emerging democracy and a consolidated form of oligarchic rule. The post-civil war period has seen the reconstitution of the traditional power structure within the framework of neoliberal political economy, which in turn has resulted in the intensification of wide ranging socioeconomic disparities and the consolidation of privilege and destitution as the country's historical power relations dichotomy.;Set in this context, this dissertation seeks to contribute to the understanding and critical analysis of three fundamental areas of El Salvador's reconfigured oligarchic rule. It begins with a conceptualization of the character and functioning patterns of the reconfigured Salvadoran neoliberal oligarchy, based upon a theoretical framework that integrates both historical (the "oligarchic") and recent trends of capitalist development (neoliberalism) in order to shed light on the changing dynamics of the country's dominant class formation and the power structure upon which it rests. On the basis of this theoretical conceptualization, it will be argued that a Transnationalized Oligarchic Neoliberal Bloc (TONB) has been formed in El Salvador during the last two decades. The TONB has adopted neoliberalism as its economic compass; yet, it remains oligarchic in its political character, insofar as its relation to the state and society as a whole is concerned.;In order to anchor the analysis of the transition to neoliberal political economy, Part I will present a historical account of the evolution of oligarchic rule in El Salvador, starting with the liberal reforms of the 1880s that facilitated the consolidation of the coffee industry, continuing with the fifty years of the oligarchy-military Strategic Alliance, and ending with the signing of the Peace Accords in 1992.;Part II will present a detailed examination of how the process of post-civil war oligarchic re-consolidation took place through twenty years (1989-2009) of systematic implementation of neoliberal policies, which rested upon five pillars: privatization, liberalization of state activities, tax reform, dollarization, and free trade. With these policies, the financial, economic, commercial, and social welfare sectors were almost entirely transferred into the hands of the newly diversified import-oriented entrepreneurial bloc that has begun a process of transnationalization through investment and capital expansion within the context of regional and transnational neoliberal circuits.;Part Ill provides a critical analysis of the impact of oligarchic consolidation on the majority of Salvadoran society with regard to the ways in which the structures of inequality and concentration of wealth have been replicated and even intensified in the post-civil war period. The analysis is conducted while keeping in mind the special conditions of a post-civil war country that has been historically characterized by abysmal inequalities and that is currently struggling to rebuild and find paths toward integral development and social justice.