5. The State, The City and The Priest: Political Participation and Conflict Resolution in Independence -- Era Central America.

The chapter presents a study which explored the dual role of the municipality as institution and agent of local and central government in Central America. How republican lawmakers transformed the colonial ayuntamiento, or town council, an institution available only to Spanish communities of the colony, into the municipalidad, a political forum explicitly for establishment in all but the smallest villages, regardless of the character or origin of inhabitants is analyzed. Also, the lawmakers' and church hierarchy's inscription of local ecclesiastical authority, the town priest, as an official agent of government authority in the municipality is examined.