Populist governance, caudillismo, and the crisis of education in Nicaragua

Abstract

In Nicaragua, the populist government of Daniel Ortega has transformed itself into a form of autocracy, commonly referred to in Latin America as caudillismo, which is having a detrimental effect on the country’s system of education. The dual crises of populist governance and education in Nicaragua today are rooted in a historical trajectory marked by post-colonialism, deep class divisions, and conflict. By tracing the connection between state governance and education through several key periods of Nicaragua’s political history, we explain how each dramatic change of government has affected the vision or perceived national purpose of education. The Ortega regime, however, having dismantled the constitutional foundations of democratic governance, has forfeited a sense of national purpose for education in the pursuit of political expediency and regime survival. With Nicaragua at a crossroads following recent fraudulent national elections, we conclude that educational reform should be an integral facet of the ongoing struggle to reconstitute democratic governance.