Remarkable changes have occurred over the past fifteen years in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama. Wars are ending, political systems have opened up substantially, and economic policies have been redesigned to favor market approaches. Most of the published literature on this area did not explain these developments and, in fact, had considered them improbable.

The editors address four questions: How do the powerful yield their power? How do key figures bring about political liberalization and democratization against seemingly impossible odds? What rules or arrangements do they design to achieve these outcomes? What is the behavior of economic elites in political and economic liberalization?

The ten contributors are all active political figures in Central America, often from opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. They include a former president, a former defense minister, two former finance ministers, a Sandinista commander, a former associate of the Salvadoran guerrillas, and three presidential candidates - all providing reflections and insights on the processes by which they helped bring about political and economic change in Central America.