This book tackles several core questions in the literature on underdevelopment while highlighting contemporary history in Central America. Fabrice Lehoucq systematically examines the origins of civil wars, the causes of democratization, and the hardship that economic underdevelopment places on democratic consolidation. It is an ambitious undertaking for a book that runs to a little more than 160 pages of text. In the end, the work serves as a valuable platform for discussion on the political economy of underdevelopment. The answers provided are not as neatly packaged as the questions posed, but some of this is no doubt due to the complex nature of the inquiry itself. And the book does fall short on its substantive effort to take an overview of developments—or underdevelopments, as it were—in contemporary Central America.

As Lehoucq reminds us in the opening pages of The Politics of Modern Central America, it is stunning just how quickly the region disappeared from the headlines after the end of the Cold War. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration had all but marked Central America as a staging ground for the march of communism across the Western Hemisphere. Indeed, many of us recall Ronald Reagan's warning of just how quickly Nicaraguan troops could make their way to Brownsville, Texas—an alleged threat which, along with the defense of El Salvador, justified support for the contras in Nicaragua. U.S. support for the contras became unmistakably scandalous as ties to weapons sales to Iran and ransoms for terrorist hostage takers unfolded. And in much of the region—in particular El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua—media stories about horrific massacres in distant rural villages and reports of bold insurgent campaigns appeared almost daily. U.S. armed forces placed themselves center stage in the political developments of one country when they invaded Panama in an effort to arrest General Manuel Noriega. But today, Central America barely receives notice in U.S. foreign policy or in the media.

It is not that the region has lost all importance or intrigue, however. The international drug trade has been forcibly ensconced in the isthmus, a related crime wave now plagues the area, a large diaspora has settled in major U.S. cities and forged indispensable economic linkages to the region, and the fragility of democratic institutions menaces states near and abroad insofar as we recognize the contagious effects of democratic decline. In short, there are obvious matters related to U.S. security, human rights, economics, and diplomacy that warrant the study of Central America. Moreover, the demographic and cultural connections, alongside the growing recognition granted to Latino politics in the United States, are enough to draw our interest. In short, Central America has its own intrinsic appeal.

As outlined by Lehoucq, the region also offers an ideal opportunity for the study of political economy. Despite mainstream portrayals of the region as a near homogeneous set of underdeveloped, hopeless countries, the author highlights the actual variation. Costa Rica has been a beacon of stability since 1948. Costa Rica and Panama have distinguished themselves with economic growth. Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador fell into civil war, but the insurgents won in Nicaragua, the government won in Guatemala, and a stalemate ensued in El Salvador. Honduras, the poorest country before the onset of the civil war period, did not see a rebellion. Lehoucq keenly works through these variations to isolate factors in his controlled, cross-case analysis. But even as he does so, he seeks further insight, and often challenges the large-n statistical research on political economy. References to this literature strengthen his analysis throughout the book.

The Politics of Modern Central America offers a clear message in regard to the dynamics of political economy: Politics matters. Chapter 1 addresses economic determinism head-on. It provides an overview of the monoculture/export economy and the adverse effects of inequality from the post–World War II era to the 1980s. The conventional wisdom does not give the region much of a chance for democratization under these conditions, but Lehoucq argues that the actual antecedents to dictatorship rest in the lack of political competition. Where competition led to stalemate, as in Costa Rica, political actors had to share state power and address differences in the electoral arena. The case illustrates how the agro-export economy can accommodate democratic rule and does not necessarily require dictatorship.

Chapter 2 investigates the causes of civil war, and here the comparison shifts to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua—those countries where civil conflict did emerge—on the one hand, and Costa Rica, Honduras, and Panama on the other. Immediately, Lehoucq highlights the inadequacy of economistic explanations. Honduras, the poorest country, did not experience mass rebellion, and the data show that conflict in fact preceded economic decline throughout the region. Once again, the author looks to political causes, and here his conversation with large-n statistical studies proves particularly important. Such studies, especially those that have relied on the Polity IV classification of political regimes, fail to capture the relationship between regime type and violent conflict. But Lehoucq uses a revised regime type—inconsistent authoritarianism—to shore up the connection. These regimes are unabashedly authoritarian, but the lack of clear succession rules made for infighting and opened space for opposition movements. The argument, which looks to deficiencies in authoritarianism rather than deficiencies in democracy to explain civil conflict, is made persuasively.

Chapter 3 examines democratization. Once again modernization theses and, in particular, economistic explanations fall short. Instead, insurgency itself is offered as an explanation. Although the focus of democratization remains on the strategic calculations of regime elites, the analysis advances the traditional agency-focused transitions literature by adding some structure. Specifically, Lehoucq notes how insurgency drove agro-elites from the countryside, thereby both changing their economic incentives for dictatorship and breaking their alliance with military elites. Chapter 4 discusses current social economic problems. Politics, in this case the lack of effective administrative capacity and state strength, once again drives the analysis and distinguishes those countries that have done better—Costa Rica and Panama—from their counterparts. Chapter 5 also examines the relationship between economic decline and regime decay, and points to institutional reforms that defuse political power as a pathway toward progress.

As a foray into the literature on political economy, the book is a success. It would be an ideal conversation piece for a graduate seminar in this area. Lehoucq parses social, economic, and political variables and shows a clear command of the literature. But the analysis comes at the expense of a deeper survey of Central America. Periodic country capsules help place the political economy of the region in context, but this reviewer still found the focus too narrow. International forces, especially in the form of UN-sponsored and regional efforts to mediate peace negotiations were undoubtedly instrumental to the ending of civil wars. The book recognizes this impact, but does not integrate international factors (fewer international economic forces) at a theoretical level into its more focused evaluation of political economy. Characterizing the United States invasion of Panama as “the functional equivalent of an insurgent victory” (p. 89) is not very plausible, and overlooks the real differences between foreign occupation and the interplay of competing elites. In addition, the formative impact of liberation theology on the rebellions is largely absent (there is a brief reference on p. 81), the independent institutional interests of the armed forces as self-proclaimed nation and state builders is not addressed, and important questions of sequencing—how political developments in one country affected another—are not highlighted. Then again, one virtue of the book is how well it surveys questions of political economy in a rather quick read.

Viewed as a work in political economy rather than a comprehensive survey, The Politics of Modern Central America makes a helpful contribution to the scholarship on underdevelopment. At the same time, it also illustrates the shortcomings of explanations that limit themselves to political economy.