Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T13:27:14.517Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Default Pressures in Consolidated versus Contentious Democracy: Costa Rica and Jamaica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2020

Cameron Ballard-Rosa
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Get access

Summary

I begin this chapter with a case study of Costa Rica, a country almost universally admired for its peaceful and democratic political system.In such a consolidated democracy, I demonstrate that political attention to rural voters played a crucial role in the electoral success of the dominant PLN party; however, when faced with fiscal crisis in the 1980s, inability to reform agricultural pricing policies (as well as wage policies for electorally-crucial public sector unions) ultimately drove Costa Rica into default.The chapter concludes with discussion of contentious democratic politics in Jamaica, where political violence often organized by parties in urban centers unfortunately often plays a role.In such a system, the importance of limiting urban unrest through cheap food policies became a clear target under both PNP and JLP rule.Under severe fiscal crisis in the 1980s, Jamaican rulers proved unwilling to reform pricing policies beneficial to urban interests out of fear of societal unrest that would result, driving Jamaica to default not only to its external creditors, but also on its loans from the IMF itself.

Type
Chapter
Information
Democracy, Dictatorship, and Default
Urban-Rural Bias and Economic Crises across Regimes
, pp. 116 - 156
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×