Nicaragua: Development Under Fire

Edited by: Gordon White and Kate Young

July 1988
Volume 19 Number 3

Five years ago a conference met at this Institute to consider the immediate post-revolutionary experience of Nicaraguan development. At that time we came to several conclusions: first, that the development strategies adopted by the Sandinista government had several features which distinguished them from orthodox forms of socialist development, notably the commitment to a degree of economic and political pluralism.

Second, although there had been significant progress in achieving more equal distribution and meeting basic social needs, Nicaragua's development performance was problematic in certain basic areas [for a more detailed discussion see White and Young 1985]. Third, an already worrying economic situation was being exacerbated by the escalation of the Contra war and the hostility of the Reagan administration.

In November last year a workshop was convened to review the situation four years on. It placed particular emphasis on the way the war has impinged on Nicaragua's ability to deal with its pressing economic problems and implement its distinctive development model. Most of the papers in this Bulletin were presented at that workshop.'