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The United States and Liberal Democracy in El Salvador

Marsh, Richard Charles
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9077-9027
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1620656649031983

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, History.
The Salvadoran Civil War of 1979-1992 transformed the nation’s government from a military dictatorship into a liberal democracy. The United States was involved from the beginning to the end of the war, yet the superpower’s role in the political outcome has been under-investigated. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to examine how the presence of the United States in the conflict shaped its eventual outcome. It argues that the United States’ main role was to serve as a bulwark for the formal institutions and processes of liberal democratic government against the furies unleashed by the civil war. Salvadoran politicians, activists, party members and voters worked within these institutions to reform the politics of the country. The U.S. policy that unfolded in El Salvador was itself a product of historical development. This dissertation therefore describes the historical antecedents of the policies of the three U.S. presidential administrations that engaged with the Salvadoran Civil War: those of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. These antecedents included the legacy of U.S. imperialism in the Caribbean Basin, the Cold War, and the rise of the human rights movement in U.S. politics. Furthermore, the Reagan and Bush administrations’ El Salvador policy was the product of both administrations’ interaction with a human rights constituency in the U.S. Congress.
Peter Hahn (Advisor)
Stephanie Smith (Committee Member)
Peter Mansoor (Committee Member)
Joseph Parrott (Committee Member)
264 p.
History
US Foreign Relations; El Salvador; Salvadoran Civil War; democratization; Reagan Doctrine; counterinsurgency; democratic institutions; modernization; human rights; peacemaking; Alvaro Magana; Jose Napoleon Duarte; Alfredo Cristiani; US Congress

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Marsh, R. C. (2021). The United States and Liberal Democracy in El Salvador [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1620656649031983

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Marsh, Richard. The United States and Liberal Democracy in El Salvador . 2021. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1620656649031983.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Marsh, Richard. "The United States and Liberal Democracy in El Salvador ." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1620656649031983

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1620656649031983
615
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.