Understanding power

Reading Understanding power using http://itunes.com/apps/Stanza. “Chapter Two”: "by what criteria are El Salvador and Guatemala "democratic" and Nicaragua not? Well, there is a criterion: in Nicaragua [under the Sandinistas], business elements are not represented in dominating the state much beyond their numbers, so it's not a "democracy." In El Salvador and Guatemala, the governments are run by the military for the benefit of the local oligarchies-the landowners, rich businessmen, and rising professionals-and those people are tied up with the United States, so therefore those countries are "democracies." It doesn't matter if they blow up the independent press, and kill off the political opposition, and slaughter tens of thousands of people, and never run anything remotely like a free election all of that is totally irrelevant. They're "democracies," because the right people are running them;"http://brinesalt.posterous.com/understanding-power