© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The World Association for Public Opinion Research. All rights reserved.
Charles D. Brockett (2005). Political Movements and Violence in Central America
University of Florida
Charles D Brockett (2005). Political Movements and Violence in Central America. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 380 pp., ISBN: 0–521–60055–3.
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This important book is a study of popular protest and government repression in Guatemala and El Salvador. It draws on an events database comparing popular protest with levels of governmental repression over time. The book should be helpful to scholars of social movements, contentious politics, and democratization. It ties in with similar work by Sidney Tarrow and Charles Tilly on other regions of the world and should be useful to scholars interested in contention beyond Central America.
Brockett's database allows him to trace strikes and protests on the one hand, and government response or repression on the other hand. In Guatemala his data extend from 1955 through 1984 while his Salvadorean data reach from 1976 through 1991. The study focuses on two cases that have received relatively little attention from political science, particularly with respect to Guatemala.