t Latin converts partly by promising magical change. In that respect, they are closer to traditional Latin Catholicism than to traditional northern Protestantism." Still, the Protestant churches are a liberalizing force. Economically, these sects "stimulate entrepreneurialism by requiring the born-again to reform their personal behavior; men, for example, are pressed to give up drinking and become more responsible fathers. Politically, these new religious movements have had to fight for space and tolerance, and to the extent they have succeeded·and succeeded in winning tolerance from the Catholic Church·they have helped to democratize their countries."
Changes in the intellectual arena also are important. The widespread repudiation of Marxism-Leninism in 1989 was decisive, but among intellectuals throughout the world the political pendulum had been swinging toward the right since 1968. Until that year, the energy in El Salvadoran intellectual life, as elsewhere, was found in Marxism, but during the 1970s and 1980s, many important El Salvadoran intellectuals began to move towards social democracy and "then to Lockean liberalism and the free-market principles of Adam Smith."
Liberation Theology and Social Democracy in El Salvador
Many left-wing El Salvadoran guerrilla groups have given up armed struggle and accepted democratic rule. Some of these groups also have renounced Leninism and are distancing themselves from Marxist economies. Crucial to this trend is the influence of "Eurosocialists such as [former] French president Francois Mitterand and, particularly, Spain's prime minister, Felipe Gonzalez, men whose modern vision of socialism has a decidedly liberal flavor." Nevertheless, it is difficult to be sanguine about liberal democracy's future in El Salvador, where the risk of a military uprising remains strong.
The United States and Liberation Theology in El Salvador
The murder of Archbishop Romero in...