| This dissertation is addressed to the questions of the nature of the contemporary political crisis in El Salvador, and its implications concerning the prospects for democratization. To answer these questions, this study undertakes an historical analysis of the country's political regime (1930s-1980s). It also presents a case study of financial reforms which permits to explore the constitution and dynamics of the regime in greater detail, and to highlight important sociological and political dimensions of Salvadorean financial institutions.;This thesis argues that during the 14 year long dictatorship of General Maximiliano Hernandez-Martinez (1931-1944), a corporatist regime was established, supplanting a "liberal-oligarchic" one which collapsed during the Great Depression. The creation by this dictatorship of various national economic institutions, such as the central and mortgage banks, and the Salvadorean Company of Coffee, was both an important outcome of, and a means for the establishment of the corporatist political system. During the post World War Two period the corporatist edifice was challenged from many quarters; its bases were steadily undermined leading to the crisis of the 1980s when it finally collapsed. Postwar financial reforms were part and parcel of this change.;The collapse of corporatism is the product of developments that have deep historical roots. These developments, which were brought into very sharp relief during the 1980s, can be seen as assets for democratization in the long term. At present, the country is going through a difficult transition characterized by the collapse of old-age political practices, the emergence of new ones, and heightened polarization--in fact, a civil war. This study stresses that the democratic possibilities offered by the collapse of corporatism, and the redistributive potential of reforms, will not emerge and develop as long as a peaceful solution to the civil war is not reached and the Left continues to be excluded from the political system. |
