Complete Thesis_double spaced abstract.pdf

coincided with high levels of political violence; although again the violence is ongoing. At the
very least, there appeared to be a relationship between the introduction of economic development
policies and an increase or maintenance of a high level of state sanctioned violence. With the
exception of President Arbenz’s administration, there were no instances documented during the
1950 to 1995 time period when significant economic policies were implemented and levels of
political violence were low, during the first year of implementation.
Violence and Migration
The framework predicts that high levels of political violence have an effect on the
amount of intra and interstate migration. When violence is low economic variables provide more
explanatory power. In the Guatemalan study there were periods of high violence which
corresponded with increasing total migration, such as 1966-1967, 1976-1980, and 1986-1990.
There are also periods of high political violence that correspond with decreasing migration such
as 1982-1985 and 1991-1992; although in these periods total migration remains significantly
higher than the rest of the periods. In the mid-1980s a large decline in the number of displaced
persons reduced the total movement of individuals and offset any increases to interstate
migration. Additionally, low political violence does not always correspond with low migration,
during 1955-1965, 1968-1970, and 1973-1974 there was low political violence and increasing
migration. A possible explanation for the divergent results from Morrison (1993) and Morrison
and May (1994) is that their studies measured only the effect of violence on interstate migration.
In this study total intra and interstate migration was measured.
However, these findings seem to indicate a few additional explanations for the increases
and decreases to migration beyond simple economic factors. In addition to the lag time described
by Stanley (1987), between the peak of political violence and the peak of migration, there may be
strong residual effects from high levels of political violence that effect migration patterns for
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