By Cynthia J. Arnson, Joseph S. Tulchin, and Bernice Romero

Table of Contents

I. Acknowledgments

II. Introduction

Ill. Notes on the Nicaraguan Transition
David R. Dye

IV. Rapporteur's Report*

Panel I: A Framework for Discussion

Panel II: Obstacles to Political Consensus and Economic Growth

Panel Ill: Achieving Political Consensus

Final Comments  

From the Introduction

The central mission of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is to bring together the worlds of scholarship and public policy. Rarely, if ever, has the Latin American Program succeeded so completely in merging these two worlds and perspectives as in the conference, "Nicaragua's Search for Democratic Consensus," held in the Wilson Center library on Tuesday, May 11, 1993. Indeed, at some point it seemed as if the Wilson Center had become one more actor in the daily drama of Nicaraguan politics. Even the effort to organize the conference pitched the Latin American Program into the middle of Nicaragua's tormented factional politics - who would attend, who would sit next to whom - and the conference itself appears to have become a significant milestone in the struggle to achieve political stability and democratic consensus in Nicaragua. This struggle continues to this day.