Governance in the Aftermath of NeoLiberalism: Aid, Elites and State Capacity in Central America

Abstract

There is an increasing consensus that development and poverty reduction depends on the existence of inclusive state institutions that make and enforce rules and implement development policies. There is also increasing evidence that this depends on the emergence of a development-oriented elite that supports such institutions. However, there is little agreement regarding how such an elite emerges, or how external interventions, such as aid, contribute to the strengthening of institutions through the impact on elites. This article argues that one of the reasons for the limited effect is that governance interventions implicitly or explicitly have been based on a narrow and simplistic view of elites and the state. The article draws up an analytical framework for understanding state capacity and governance, particularly focusing on relations between states and elites. It then discusses how a set of reforms induced by the international community to move Central America toward market-oriented economies have contributed to the current governance crisis in the Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras). The final part discusses the impact of the neoliberal reforms on four dimensions of state capacity in the Northern Triangle of Central America: extraction, coercion, service provision and regulation. While the neoliberal reforms did not have a uniform impact on governance, they entered into ongoing struggles between elites, and thus had different effects on processes of strengthening or weakening state capacity.

Keywords:

• elites
• governance
• state capacity
• aid
• Honduras
• Guatemala
• El Salvador

Notes

¹The definition seeks to move beyond an ‘institutionalist' definition of elites as proposed by among others, Mills, where elites are identified as the persons occupying the higher positions in formal institutions, as well as a class-based definition argued by Marxist contributions. It is inspired by the Italian-school's (Mosca, Pareto and Michells) focus on influence, but it also draws on anthropological perspectives, including a focus on resources beyond capital. See Bull 2015 for a further discussion. 

²Interview, former co-owner of bank and ANEP director, November 2010.

³Interview, Jaime Rosenthal, leader of Grupo Continental, 28. November 2011.

⁴Mining is not new in Honduras, and there is currently a moratorium on mining activities in El Salvador.

⁵McCleary, 1999, p. 92 claims that Guatel generated before its privatization an estimated 82 per cent of the state's total revenues, but that appears as heavily exaggerated. 

⁶The attraction of this was increased by the increasing dominance of a discourse emphasizing the private entrepreneur as the image of success. As Boullos and Wallace (2015) writes on the case of Mexico:The glorification of wealth and entrepreneurialism provided a cultural environment that boosted the social standing of narco businessmen [ … ] The weakening of the state and the glorification of ‘free enterprise' conferred authority and legitimacy on the private sector in which drug traffickers were now key players. (“2015, p. 54)

⁷ http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl0200.aspx.

⁸ http://www.laprensa.hn/honduras/tegucigalpa/329867-98/extorsiones-han-cerrado-1600-empresas-en-tegucigalpa.

⁹ http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Impunity-in-Honduras-Highest-in-Central-America-at-96-20141202-0052.html.