Paper short abstract:

Upon the return of the Sandinista party to power in 2007 many rural Nicaraguans believed that their poverty and precariousness would begin to recede, instead it has been reinforced as the new normal.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines how a resource-poor country is able to practice a form of governmentality over its citizens through the normalization of poverty. Rooted in a governmentality approach to risk, this paper approaches the application of this disciplinary strategy to the developing world from a critical perspective acknowledging that, in this context, it is only one of many tactics employed by the state to influence populations. As a result, discussions of disciplinary power and development theory also contribute to the theoretical orientation of this paper. Based on eleven months of fieldwork and twelve years of community involvement data collection involved participant observation, semi-structured interviews, informal interviews, house visits, a survey and self-monitoring of daily household expenses.

Drawing on this data, a model for 'Nicaraguan Governmentality' employing the 'normalization of poverty' was developed. This model identifies three primary strategies used by the government to reduce the potential for social unrest among its citizens: social programs, NGOs and private projects, and institutionalized social control disguised as 'direct democracy'. Through the manipulation of economic resources and the governing bodies of local communities, the Nicaraguan government has created an effective method of governance from a distance with the use of minimal resources effectively employing a 'Lean Nation's' version of governmentality. The end result of this strategy is an effective form of social control over the citizenry at the expense of democracy.