Visiting Assistant Professor of Government Shelley McConnell attended the Latin American Studies Association conference in Montreal, Canada, where she presented a paper on Sept. 6. As a member of a panel titled "Multilateralism and the 'New' Challenges to Democracy in Latin America," McConnell presented "Can the Inter-American Democratic Charter Work? The 2004-2005 Constitutional Crisis in Nicaragua."
The Inter-American Democratic Charter is the most comprehensive agreement for the collective defense of democracy that the Western Hemisphere has ever known. Signed by all 34 active members of the Organization of American States on Sept. 11, 2001 (which is why Colin Powell was in Lima when the United States was attacked), the agreement permits member states to call upon their neighbors for help in the event of a threat to democratic governance.
Her paper examines the roles of six international actors in resolving the constitutional crisis that erupted in 2004 in Nicaragua and threatened to end in impeachment of President Enrique Bolaños. Those six international actors were the USA, OAS, UNDP, the Central American Integration System, the Central American Court of Justice and a nongovernmental group called Friends of the Democratic Charter.
McConnell provides a detailed case study of how the six organizations' actions affected local actors' strategic calculations and ultimately led to a negotiated accord to end the crisis. She argues that the Inter-American Democratic Charter expanded the scope of confrontation to include the international community, not just local Nicaraguan actors, and raised the costs to Nicaragua's political parties of pursuing impeachment. The time horizon of the crisis extended until incentive structures changed due to the impending election and a "drop-dead" date for ratifying the Central American Free Trade agreement. In particular, the Organization of American States was able to take steps to prevent the crisis from ending in a politically-motivated impeachment that would not have been possible absent the Inter-American Democratic Charter.
McConnell also was a panelist on a roundtable on Sept. 8, titled "The Sandinistas and Nicaraguan Politics."
