Optimism reborn. Nicaragua's Participative Education Revolution, the Citizen Power development model and the construction of ‘21st century socialism’

This paper explores Nicaragua's Participative Education Revolution and the Citizen Power national development model in the construction of socialism in the 21st century in Latin America and the Caribbean through the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples' Trade Agreement. Centred around the notion of ‘revolutionary democracy’, I argue that Citizen Power, promoted by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) since returning to government in January 2007, means the structural transformation from neoliberalism to socialism. Rather than providing a comprehensive analysis of the FSLN education policies, I explore two elements of the Participative Education Revolution of direct relevance to the construction of socialism/revolutionary democracy: the National Literacy Campaign ‘From Martí to Fidel’ and the 2007/2008 Great National Consultation for the Reform of the Basic and Medium Education Curriculum.