State, Class, and Transition in Nicaragua

The centrality of class in analyzing social change is one of the fundamental propositions of Marxian theory. Unfortunately, the revolutionary insights that can be gained from placing class at the center of analysis are often lost, particularly in transitional experiences. The problems of socialist development in Latin America and the Caribbean are rarely, if ever, viewed through the perspective of class. This is especially true when it comes to so-called economic questions. Key issues of the peripheral socialist economy, such as the state, accumulation, and macroeconomic stabilization, are discussed as if they were general economic problems, without contradictory class conditions and effects. The danger, of course, is that the socialist project of class transformation may be curtailed or even undermined by not taking these class aspects into account. Is there no alternative? One step in the direction of elaborating a specifically Marxian analysis of socialist development is to investigate the relationship between the state (including state economic policy) and class in the Nicaraguan Revolution. This analysis points out some of the typical tensions and contradictions involved in carrying out a socialist project in the context of a small mixed economy faced with external aggression.