The impact of international training on democratic values, attitudes and behavior: An evaluation of the Costa Rican CAPS high school program

In the early 1980s the Reagan Administration was extremely preoccupied with social unrest and political upheaval in Latin America. Nowhere in the region was the Reagan Administration more concerned with the rise of anti-democratic forces than in Central America. Events on the isthmus provoked a profound desire to reformulate and implement policies to strengthen democratic forces and curb the growing Soviet influence in Central America. As a response to this specific concern, the Central American Peace Scholarship Program (CAPS) was created, following a recommendation by the Kissinger Commission, as a sub-component of the region-wide Caribbean and Latin American Scholarship Program (CLASP). The CAPS Program was designed to promote democratic regimes and enhance stability within Central America by attempting to encourage and foster democratic values, attitudes and behavior. This dissertation asks the questions: What was the impact of the international training on program participants' democratic values, attitudes and behavior? Do CAPS participants demonstrate greater levels of political tolerance, system support and participation than non-participants? I used a survey instrument to measure democratic values of 261 Costa Rican youth and compared three groups: (1) CAPS Program participants who spent ten months living in the United States, (2) Program participant finalists who ultimately received no training in the United States, and (3) A national university sample. The main hypothesis was that the experimental group (CAPS participants) would demonstrate higher scores on measures of democratic values, attitudes and behavior than the other groups. The findings do not support this hypothesis. The CAPS participants are less politically tolerant than the other groups. The CAPS participants are much less supportive of the Costa Rican political system and the then-current Costa Rican Government than the non-participants. Finally, the CAPS trainees do not participate significantly more in the political process than the non-participants. The Central American Peace Scholarship Program does not appear to have met many of its objectives in terms of strengthening the democratic values, attitudes and behavior of the participants in the Costa Rican CAPS high school program.